Page 35 - History of War - Issue 01-14

5 BORN ON THE

FOURTH OF JULY
Director Oliver Stone, 1989
The second fi lm in Oliver Stone’s Vietnam trilogy
explores the adverse reaction war veterans received
on returning to the US. Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic,
a student who’s convinced to enlist as a Marine and
fi ght in Vietnam. However, his second tour, in 1967,
proves disastrous – fi rst, he’s involved in killing Vietnamese civilians,
then he inadvertently kills one of his own comrades. Finally, he’s shot
during a fi refi ght and paralysed from the chest down, condemning him
to a squalid hospital and, ultimately, life in a wheelchair. Stone received
the Best Director Oscar for his efforts, and it’s not hard to see why.

HAMBURGER HILL

6 Director John Irvin, 1987 RESCUE DAWN
Hill 937. Also known as Ap Bia Mountain. Also known 7 Director Werner Herzog, 2006
as Hamburger Hill. In May 1969, US troops from In this based-on-a-real-life story, Christian Bale stars
the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment (part as Dieter Dengler, a German-born US Navy pilot
of the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division) began whose A-1 Skyraider was shot down whilst fl ying over
their attempt to take the hill from heavily dug-in NVA Laos during the Vietnam War. Captured by the Pathet
forces. It was to become a ferocious encounter, with Lao, he is tortured and beaten (although the worst
unexpected numbers of North Vietnamese defending of Dengler’s torture has been omitted from the fi nal
their desolate hill – which actually had little strategic cut, as the fi lm is rated 12) before being taken to a
value – and the result was a vast loss of life on both sides. John prison camp. The suspense builds as the fi lm follows Dengler’s escape
Irvin’s movie brilliantly captures the events of the battle, which occurred from the camp, and his subsequent rescue. A movie made on a budget
amid a backdrop of anti-war protests in the US and, towards the end of just $10million, Rescue Dawn provides a chilling glimpse into the
of the campaign, torrential rain and mudslides. Visceral, poignant and horrors of being a prisoner of war, with some superb acting from Bale.
frighteningly life-like, Hamburger Hill is fi lmmaking at its best.

WE WERE SOLDIERS

9 Director Randall Wallace, 2002
Based on the book We Were Soldiers Once… And
Young by Lieutenant General Hal Moore and journalist
Joseph Galloway, this fi lm centres around the two
men’s experiences in one of the fi rst battles of the
Vietnam War. In 1965, 400 US soldiers, many of
them inexperienced in the fi eld of combat, were sent
by helicopter relays into the la Drang Valley – the so-
called Valley of Death – to face an unknown quantity
of North Korean troops. When they landed, they
discovered almost 4,000 awaiting them. Mel Gibson
gives a surprisingly gritty performance as Moore in a fi lm that is as
relentless in its portrayal of battle as it is in its exploration of the effects
on the wives and children back home. As for director Randall Wallace,
he was no stranger to fi lms depicting war, having penned the screenplay
for the Gibson-directed 1995 Oscar-winning epic Braveheart.
JACOB’S LADDER
8 Director Adrian Lyne, 1990
Visually shocking and as dark as coal, Lyne’s Jacob’s HEAVEN & EARTH
Ladder stunned cinema audiences when it was
released back in 1990. It follows Jacob Singer 10 Director Oliver Stone, 1993
(Tim Robbins), a former soldier with the 1st Air Heaven & Earth is Oliver Stone’s third fi lm inspired
Cavalry Division in Vietnam who starts experiencing by the Vietnam confl ict, and follows the life of a
horrifi c hallucinations when he returns home to New Vietnamese village girl caught up in the horror of war.
York City. Are they the symptoms of post-traumatic First tortured by South Vietnamese troops, she is
stress syndrome or is something more sinister later raped by members of the Viet Cong for being a
afoot? As Singer tries to uncover the truth behind his suspected traitor. She and her family are then forced
plight, he starts learning of mysterious deaths among his friends and to move to Saigon, where she falls pregnant to the
a Government plot to turn soldiers into psychotic killing machines using master of the house she works for. When she meets and falls in
psychedelic drugs. Part horror, part detective story, Jacob’s Ladder is love with a US Gunner Sergeant (played neurotically by Tommy Lee Jones),
sometimes confusing (repeated viewings are certainly recommended) the couple return to the US to live, but yet more strife is on its way…
and frequently horrifi c, and remains a cult classic to this day. Deeply moving, Heaven & Earth is a rare example of the Vietnam War as
seen from a Vietnamese perspective.
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