Hamburger Hill (1987)

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Movie Review: "Hamburger Hill" (1987)Alongside with "Apocalypse Now" (1979), "Platoon" (1986), "Full Metal Jacket" (1987) comes this underrated Vietnam-War-Movie directed by John Irvin, who gives some diverse never-seen beats of stripping-human-spirits in well-placed one shot character monologues with his newly-acquired bunch of U.S. army 187th infantry of the 3rd Battalion, including mesmerizing portrayals by actors Dylan McDermott and into warzone-backgrounds diving Don Cheadle as Private Johnny Washburn with non-stop conflicted action scenes in fire, smoke and burning earth in ultra-violent scenarios of war shaping into a recommendable motion picture war experience distributed by Paramount Pictures presenting "Hamburger Hill" in Summer 1987 to tell the story of the title-given forest clearing somewhere in the South-East Asian jungles of no means, when for ten straight days this legendary platoon, written and produced by hands-on-experience Vietnam War veteran James Carabatsos, who had moves into film-making endeavors as screenwriter for Clint Eastwood's "Heartbreak Ridge" (1986), getting his war memories / feelings visually-restored in full- frontal cinematography by Peter MacDonald, known for directing massive-bodies-counting "Rambo III" in season 1987/1988, when "Hamburger Hill" is able to reach the Top 5 of the best Vietnam-War-Movies ever made.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

The movie Hamburger Hill is based on a real battle in 1969. It's one of the few Vietnam War movies to portray the soldiers in a realistic and accurate way. Most of the others fail to do justice for the brave men who fought there.Rather than stereotyping soldiers as either druggies or genocidal redneck maniacs (as we see in movies like Platoon), this one portrays the troops as what they were: just ordinary, average men trying to do a very difficult and demanding job. More than any other movie about Vietnam, this one shows the misery that the men were going through, not only in battle, but due to the unfairly negative image of the Vietnam troops the American media was creating at that time.

Unfairly forgotten and left in the slipstream of critical darlings Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill can proudly fly its own worthwhile flag. There's nothing preachy or political here, director John Irvin and writer James Carabatsos approach the subject with a refreshing humane honesty, making us viewers privy to the American soldiers mindset as they cope with life in Vietnam before an assault on some turd pile strategic hill, a battle that the survivors of that particular bloody conflict would call Hamburger Hill.No matter what one feels about the war, the politics of such etc, the fact that quite often Vietnam films zoom in on the misdemeanours and egotistical sides of the American presence in Vietnam, tends to detract from the bravery of men and boys who were doing the job their government decreed they should do. Hamburger Hill addresses this, proudly so. Pace is deliberate and literate, building up to the assault on Hill 937, with little slices of kinetic action inserted along the way to tantalise and torment in equal measure.Not all the acting is smart, there's a cast of up and coming thesps on show that features some who have gone on to be "name" actors, while others that were out of their depth subsequently found a level more befitting their abilities. Yet this is also a cunning tactic in the film's favour, no stars needed here, young adult actors without baggage or headlines kind of feels appropriate for this portrayal of soldiers in an alien world, many of whom would lay their shattered bodies down in the mud at Hamburger Hill. 8/10

Director Francois Truffaut famously said "There is no such thing as an anti-war film." People taking dramatic action, risking their lives, and doing noble deeds are the stuff of war films, even anti-war films. People rather like to see explosions and guns firing. The more terrifying and horribly war is presented, the more a purportedly anti-war movie feels like a recruitment film. Don't try to tell me that "Apocalypse Now" or "Full Metal Jacket" are truly anti-war when most people in the audience are getting revved up and excited during the action sequences. Hamburger Hill is an amazingly accurate film. In my opinion, it is the only truly anti-war film ever made. Of course, this means that not everyone will like it.