The Green Berets (1968)

One of my all time favorites.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Some(leftists) will tell you the movie is inaccurate in that it shows the USA in a positive light and the VC in a negative light. They'll claim that both sides were morally equal or worse, that the VC was an innocent victim of "American Imperialism". Well, my guess is that the ONLY Vietnam Vet they have heard from is the traitor John F. Kerry. That's right, a traitor and he deserved none of the honor bestowed on him. His injuries during the conflict are on par with a scraped leg while playing football or a nick from a potato peeler. He lied about the "atrocities" carried out by US forces, the Swift boaters told the truth, then the media and the Democrat party set out to destroy REAL heroes, real Vietnam Vets who fought bravely against communist domination of yet another region of the earth. Pathetic liberals ALWAYS side with our enemies. It is obvious that if democrats EVER totally get their way, the USA will truly be irrelevant as a world power. I also disagree with the person who said Mel Gibson's "We Were Soldiers" was better, no it wasn't. It was AS good, but both movies were important. Mel Gibson's movie was more realistic, yes, but Mr. Wayne's movie was more helpful since at the time the filthy, lying, traitorous US media was trashing our Veterans and they succeeded in even brain washing some veterans of Vietnam. I have met Vets of Vietnam that bought the entire line the liberal democrats were pushing. But it simply wasn't true. The USA was in Southeast Asia by request, YES, the South DID ask for our help, and it was right to give it. Too bad we allowed a bunch of left wing, maggot infested, hippies stand in the way of victory for the USA and some measure of freedom for the poor people of South Vietnam.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that a Vietnam War movie starring and produced by John Wayne would be hugely pro war. Every time someone had anything to say, they came out in favor of the war. Sure, Charlie was ruthless, and the boogieman (commies) was everywhere, but to produce a war movie that shed not one drop of blood is a real stretch. Everything is so nice and neat. All brutality takes place off camera, and we listen to the stories of Charlie's ruthlessness. The one good thing about the film was seeing the versatility of the C-130.1968 also gave us Lee Marvin and The Dirty Dozen, and much better acting, with back up by John Cassavetes and Jim Brown.

Proaganda films are always easy to criticize - more pose tan realism, more pathos than catharsis, more naiveté than pain. Well, not always like that. The Green Berets is not Platoon, or We Were Soldiers, and surely, not Apocalypse Now. I agree on that. But this movie is not as bad as it was described by oh so many critics. John Wayne is one of my all-time favorites, and here he is not at his best, but still he does a decent job. His Col. Kirby is a good soldier, a brave warrior, an honest man and a loving heart. He is no a killing machine, surely. His character is not in fact the main moment, which is good, the movie speaks more about other Berets and rightly so. I agree, here are many bad examples of real right-wing propaganda here, yes, and Viet Kong is shown in deep black color scheme, while South Viet Nam is almost angelic in depiction. Some exaggerations are obvious, and some bias is clear, too. But then, all the cast did a good job, and despite naive video effects, the battle scenes are very impressive. In their sheer brutality. This movie is a curious curio of that age, a certain great instance of pro-war sentiment. Must be watched with a grain of salt, but still can be very deep and tragic.

To begin with I do not watch this movie because I am a John Wayne fan. I am not a fan of his work. However, I do enjoy some of his movies as they tend to have some guts to them and at times backbone.This movie was big in the box office because John Wayne was the star. However, I feel that they should have enlisted a more age appropriate actor to play the role since Mr. Wayne was clearly too old for the part.The Green Berets was made during the time of the Vietnam war not as an after thought to bring it's pain back after the conclusion. The sets were clearly American Hollywood and not location, but made for close-ups with very real resemblance.The bits of humor added in at the beginning leave me to feel that they were inserted to help soften the blow of what was to come - the very real perils of war. However, like most war movies of the era, it cannot even compare with what actually happened in Vietnam.It is my opinion that this movie was more to introduce the nation to a relatively new force unit of the United States Army. The Green Berets were established in 1952 and by this time they were well integrated into the Army as a whole and the current war. The Green Berets is much of a formal introduction of these brave men.The deaths of some key characters (while some may believe them to be pointless) display in a tangible manner the pointless deaths that did occur during this war.There is no real plot except American soldiers with special training going into the Vietnam war and what ensues. There are several smaller plots embedded such as the end plot of kidnapping the new leader of the Viet Cong. During this they utilized a civilian woman related to the Vietnamese colonel.If you enjoy war movies, then you will perhaps enjoy this one. If you are a history buff who prefers historical accuracy, you should move on. If you are a fan of John Wayne, well you have already seen this movie many times. Overall, it is a good movie.