Col. Mike Kirby picks two teams of crack Green Berets for a mission in South Vietnam. First off is to build and control a camp that is trying to be taken by the enemy. The second mission is ... Read allCol. Mike Kirby picks two teams of crack Green Berets for a mission in South Vietnam. First off is to build and control a camp that is trying to be taken by the enemy. The second mission is to kidnap a North Vietnamese General.Col. Mike Kirby picks two teams of crack Green Berets for a mission in South Vietnam. First off is to build and control a camp that is trying to be taken by the enemy. The second mission is to kidnap a North Vietnamese General.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAldo Ray's alcoholism was a continual problem during filming, to the extent that John Wayne had to give some of Ray's dialogue to other characters.
- GoofsAfter the Americans arrive at the base camp, John Wayne/Col Kirby introduces David Janssen to the camp commander by pointing his weapon at him and waving it. As a soldier, his character should know better: you treat your weapon as though it is loaded and never point the muzzle at something unless it is a target.
- Quotes
Sgt. Petersen: With joyous memories, we leave the mystical city of Da Nang! What gay adventure lies ahead? Brother, this trip is gonna make LSD feel like aspirin!
- Alternate versionsIn the original UK cinema version the BBFC edited some shots of a man impaled with a tree branch for an 'A' (PG) certificate. All later releases were uncut.
- ConnectionsEdited into The A-Team: A Nice Place to Visit (1983)
- SoundtracksThe River Seine
(La Seine) (uncredited)
Music by Guy Lafarge
French lyrics by Guy Lafarge and Flavien Monod
English lyrics by Geoffrey Parsons
Performed by Bach Yen
The Duke's problem was simply that he made a World War II film about Vietnam. And he was pilloried for it. I well remember when The Green Berets first came out, Renata Adler wrote an absolutely hysterical review of it, cursing out the film and its producer/star every name in the book in that well known paper that only prints news fit to print.
Even World War II films as well as Vietnam ones done now have the value of some historical perspective if they're done now. For my money Casualties of War is the best film done about Vietnam. The Green Berets is not a great film. It does show however the Viet Cong were not exactly boy scouts, something many refuse to acknowledge to this day.
The Green Berets is at times more silly than bad. It has some stock characters you see in war films, the gruff sergeant Aldo Ray, the resourceful scrounger Jim Hutton, the kindly doctor Raymond St. Jacques. The Vietnamese besides the Viet Cong are represented by George Takei and Jack Soo. Soo, who I first saw on Broadway in Flower Drum Song has that disarming deadpan delivery that works great for comedy, but not really well in a serious role.
In fact Soo is part of what was the silliest part of The Green Berets, the capture of a defecting South Vietnamese General who gets entrapped by an Oriental Mata Hari. Irene Tsu is the temptress here in a story that had to have been lifted from Terry and the Pirates back in the day. Someone should have been asking why a general was defecting from the South Vietnamese cause.
George Takei is a grim and hating South Vietnamese Captain. I met George Takei at a Star Trek convention several years ago and asked him about the film and John Wayne. He kind of sidestepped the question about the film, Oriental players didn't exactly have too much choices in roles. However he did say that working with John Wayne was an experience and he liked the fact that there was no pretense about him. You always knew exactly where you stood with the Duke.
Vietnam, like Iraq today, was a story of culture clash. Americans and the west view the world quite differently than these people. Somewhere along the line we'd all better learn to get along. Maybe when we're faced with beings from another world, all of our religious and socio-political differences will melt away. I hope so because I suspect that Renata Adler didn't have any more clue to what made John Wayne tick than the Duke had about Vietnam.
- bkoganbing
- Sep 12, 2006
- Permalink
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $7,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime2 hours 22 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1