Customer Reviews

84 CHARLIE MOPIC (Import Edition)

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am 57 years old.

I served with the "Brown Water" Navy for 32 months on the Bassac River, RVN from 1968-1972.

After watching nearly every "Hollywood Hokey" Vietnam Movie, I had almost given up on anyone producing a true representation of what small unit combat in Vietnam was like.

Then...I saw 84 Charlie Mopic.

Technically, there are many operational and tactical flaws in the film that immediately stand out. Crossing open clearings single file...lack of noise discipline, both small talk and loose gear...not maintaining intervals...the presence of non combat personnel on a combat patrol...and many others. Had the movie minimized these tactical flaws, I would have rated it a perfect 5 stars.

However,these flaws aside...no other Vietnam movie has grabbed me in the gut and in 15 minutes transported me back in country as this movie did.

The characters and conversations are so real and so typical of conversations I recall with my buddies and crew, that I felt I had known each of them during my tour.

The monologue of the Southern "woodworker's son", when he explained why he had no reservation being led by a black NCO...ESPECIALLY touched me. It left a lump in my throat...because these were the same sentiments I felt toward several men in my crew. Skin color was NOT an issue. I would have given my life for any one of them...then or today.

It was THIS sense of brotherhood, of loyalty, of commitment that was correctly demonstrated by this film and why ANYONE who did serve would appreciate it's content... and why anyone who wasn't there, should see it.

This film should be required viewing in every public high school today.

I wish someone would offer it on DVD.

When I taught high school English Literature I showed "84 Charlie MoPic" to students as a visual complement to the novel "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. The film works great with the novel because there are things/ideas that you can identify in the film that are discussed in the book (e.g., some of the superstitions of soldiers).

When I first saw MoPic I had tuned into a PBS airing after it had already started and believed it was actual footage for most of the film. I would try to replicate the feeling (and in a way pay homage to the film maker's efforts at versimilitude) by starting the film with the number countdown and deflecting their questions about "is this real?" until our subsequent discussion.

I highly recommend both "84 Charlie MoPic" and "The Things They Carried" individually and paired together.

I was an Army Lieutenant in Vietnam many years ago. I first saw this program by tuning in too late to get the preliminaries that told that it was a work of fiction. I took it to be a documentary. As the story progressed I got a severe case of the shakes from reliving some of the situations depicted in the story. One thing that made it realistic was the casting. The actors and the behavior of the characters are just like the people I was responsible for in Vietnam. As the story progressed, I got another set of reactions. The patrol was making tactical mistakes that would get them killed and I was powerless to help them. Eventually about half of the soldiers get killed on a two day patrol.
Later I purchased the video and watched it again. It then became obvious that the tactical mistakes were intentional in order to raise the viewers' terror of danger. For instance, you NEVER use a loud speaker on a tactical radio in the bush. The sound gives your position away. You ALWAYS have the patrol members take turns staying awake at night. You NEVER cross a clearing in single file. You line up everyone parallel to the clearing and go across together. You NEVER allow untrained people, such as a film crew, out on a patrol when there is going to be contact with the enemy. You NEVER go on the trails or roads. That is where the enemy expects you to be and arranges for an ambush. You NEVER stand up when you can sit down. This makes you harder to see. You NEVER stand in a clearing when you can stand in vegetation. This also makes you harder to see. (The Monty Python sketch about how not to be seen is a good training aid for this.)

I wasn't "there" in Vietnam, so I can't comment from that perspective, as some of the other reviewers have. But it sure seems like the makers of this movie got it right. I have seen this movie three or four times, and it gets me every single time. In 96 minutes, with only seven characters (Vietnamese are seen and heard, but none has a speaking part), the "trick" of this movie (a film within a film) ingenuoulsy allows them, on one operation, to touch on just about every emotion felt within a reconnaisance team like the one portrayed, dropped down in the middle of a godforsaken jungle, and directed to find the enemy--love, hate, fear, humor, survival, selflessness. It touches on racism, class, and the ambition of officers. Oh, yeah, it also makes you care about these characters, and mourn their fates. This is a really rich movie, and is not just for the war movie fan, although certainly not for the really squeamish. My wife has seen it several times, and feels about it pretty much as I do. Most movies being made today are easily forgotten by the next morning. This one has stayed with me, and probably always will be. I think I have seen most of the Vietnam movies (including Kubrick's) and two of them, Platoon and 84 Charley Mopic, stand out way above the rest. If I had to pick one of the two to watch, and to say to my kids "this is what it was like", it would be this one.

Once in a while you run across a film where the low budget works in its favor, and this is one of them. Through a simple story - the viewer accompanies a long-range patrol in Vietnam - the war is personalized in a way that has rarely been achieved in big-budget films.

I'm quite curious to know if the makers of Blair Witch Project saw this film at some point, because the same concept used in that film appeared first in this one, a decade earlier. The low budget and hand-held camera are cleverly made part of the story, since the man behind the camera is a soldier accompanying the patrol. It makes for a surprisingly realistic experience, especially once you are 15 or 20 minutes into the film. Very good acting by a cast of (mostly) unknowns really draws you into it.

84 Charlie Mopic has to be called a sleeper, because so few people know about it - I've yet to run across anyone who did before I told them - but I would highly recommend it to any person interested in war movies (particularly those set in Vietnam), as well as viewers who appreciate films that get by on brains rather than financial brawn.

I caught "84 Charlie Mopic" by accident many years ago on late-night TV. The film, which simulates a long range patrol (LRP) into the Vietnam jungle filmed by an Army cameraman (hence the term, Charlie Mopic) was so dead-on that for quite a while I thought I was watching some long-lost documentary. The movie is low-budget, filmed in a herky-jerky style, and the actors are not recognizable names.

I was not in Vietnam, but "Mopic," a real sleeper, has to be one of the better presentations of what Vietnam ambush combat was like. The enemy is barely glimpsed, death comes out of nowhere, and long periods of wait and boredom punctuated by noise and terror. It is closer to the mark than the big-budget "Firebase Gloria" and "Hamburger Hill," which struck me as essentialy WW2 style combat movies transposed into the jungle. It may not be saying too much that "Mopic" anticipates the quick-shift, buzzy camera work in "Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers", on a very small scale.

If you can find it, grab it.

I first saw this movie during it's original release at a seminar of the society of army pa's at Ft Bragg . The director showed the film to us courtesy of the vietnam veterans association . We were mostly veterans at the time as was the director . He explained thar realism was his primary motivating factor along with relating his experiences in vietnam . There are no exploding blood bags for special effects , his effects man went to L.A.'s E.R.'s to study real gunshot wounds and portray the same in the film and in addition all the actors carried real weapons and packs . The overall effect is one of stark realism . This looks and feels like a real documentary filmed for the troops being trained for combat in vietnam , not like a staged movie . This is the opinion of a veteran along with the other vets who saw it with me . If realism and a true feel for that war is what you are looking for then get or watch this film . No large budget movie has ever done this so successfuly as has this film .

84 Charlie Mopic is one of the greatest movies about the war in Vietnam ever filmed. As a Vietnam War scholar and enthusiast, I must rank this up there with such Vietnam classics as Platoon, Full metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now. The way Duncan teaches us the "lessons learned" by the American combat soldier in Vietnam is unprecidented. He wanted the film to have a certain documentary feel to it and he accomplishes this terrifically. Not only does the viewer witness the brutality of war through the eyes of the Grunt, we actually get a terrific story, great acting and to top it all off, we actually learn something that earlier Vietnam films just don't get accross. I would highly recommend this film to any young person studying America's involvement in the Vietnam war who wants to learn the details of what the soldier actually experienced in the field, and, anyone who is a history buff at all. This is not only a great Vietnam War film, but is a great film period. Why it has not been released on DVD in America yet is beyond me, it certainly deserves it.

Having served with the unit featured in this film, I can attest to its accurate portrayal of life as a grunt. I have seen all the Vietnam flicks,and while I appreciate the fact that the "library" of the Vietnam experience needs to be documented, none of them do as much justice to this war than "Mopic". The characters are real, not Hollywood caricatures. The fact that unknowns were employed, who are not "corrupted" by typecasting character limitations only serves to make this film seem as if the actors themselves actually served in Vietnam. There are no heroics. This film depicts soldiers' reactions to war and death with great clarity. This should be required viewing for all non Vietnam vets.

Here above we have one very good reason: availability! This is one of the toughest Vietnam War movies to find. Which is a shame. Six characters in this intense, accurate movie, about a movie cameraman in the 'Nam. I am an Army combat vet, having served from the delta to the DMZ in 1071 (MOS 11B10 -Americal - and 95B secondary - 720/504th Bn) and must say this little story rings true - I too was a lost little REMF and then a grunt, existentially in 1st person POV looking for my little war. Patrick Sheane Duncan in that way, using a LRRP-type patrol as a metaphor, reminds me of me! As an MP during the first half of my tour of duty, I even took a course in DaNang at the U of MD - Far East Div: "Abnormal Psychology" Can you imagine a professor volunteering to go to Vietnam in 1971 to teach psychology? Welcome home! A review over at imdb brings out the 'found footage' aspect of this movie; it's like the handheld footage for 'Blair Witch', or the more recent 'September Tapes' but you don't know the fate of the photographer until the very end.... The use of unknown actors lends an air of authenticity. Good luck finding a copy of this classic. When you watch it, remember the WALL in D.C. and please come back here to write a review. I have NOT seen the DVD - only an old VHS copy which I treasure. The film is supposed to look rough and grainy, so 'quality of image', per se, is not an issue here....