Page 34 - History of War - Issue 01-14

The Ten Greatest

VIETNAM WAR FILMS

From Russian roulette to rogue Colonels, psychedelic drugs to
shot-down pilots… History Of War has spent the past month watching
every movie about the Vietnam War, and here we name the best…

PLATOON
2 Director Oliver Stone, 1986
Starring Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe and Tom
Berenger, Platoon was the fi rst of Oliver Stone’s three
movies inspired by his time serving as an infantryman
during the Vietnam War (it’s believed that he wrote
the screenplay in response to the vision of war
depicted in John Wayne’s 1968 fi lm The Green Berets).
It follows Bravo Company, 25th Infantry Division as
they fi ght near the Cambodian border, and features
several memorable and harrowing scenes – not least the iconic moment
when Dafoe’s character falls to his knees amid a hail of gunfi re and the
strains of Barber’s Adagio For Strings. It’s the palpable tension of jungle-
based warfare that makes Platoon one of the best war fi lms of all time,
and it rightly received Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.

APOCALYPSE NOW FULL METAL JACKET

1 Director Francis Ford Coppola, 1979 3 Director Stanley Kubrick, 1987
Famous almost as much for the trouble Francis Kicking off on Parris Island, South Carolina, Full Metal
Ford Coppola had in making it as for the quality Jacket charts the experiences of a group of Marine
of the fi lm itself (check out the “making of” Corps recruits as they endure the rigours of boot camp
documentary, Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s under the watchful eye of nightmarish drill instructor
Apocalypse, which details how Marlon Brando Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (played with terrifying
turned up on the set overweight and Martin Sheen menace by veteran actor R Lee Ermey). Not all of
suffered a heart attack during fi lming), the double them make it through… The fi lm then catapults us
Oscar-winning Apocalypse Now charts Sheen’s into the thick of the Vietnam War itself, where one
Special Operations offi cer Benjamin Willard on his journey along the of those recruits – Joker, played by Matthew Modine – has been deployed
Nung River, after he’s been commissioned to kill a rogue Colonel, as a military journalist. After his base is attacked by the North Vietnamese
Walter Kurtz (Brando). Tensions ride high on the boat, with the drug- at the start of the Tet Offensive, Joker joins up with a fellow graduate
addled crew blaming Willard for placing them in constant peril from of Parris Island to take part in the Battle of Hué. Hard-hitting and brutal,
Viet Cong attack. The ending is part of cinematic history… Full Metal Jacket won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and goes
down as one of Stanley Kubrick’s greatest cinematic achievements.

4 THE DEER HUNTER

Director Michael Cimino, 1978
Michael Cimino’s masterpiece is a deeply affecting
tale in three parts – the fi rst played out in the US,
the second in Vietnam and the third in a combination
of the two. It tells the story of a close-knit group
of Russian-American steel workers who embark on
a fi nal deer hunt prior to leaving to fi ght in the war.
Considered controversial at the time, the fi lm is
best-known for its initial Russian roulette scene,
where characters played by Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken are
subjected to psychological torture by their North Vietnamese captors.
The Deer Hunter is a tale of friendship, regret and madness, powerfully
played by a cast that also includes Meryl Streep and John Cazale.

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