132 of 140 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Really IS the Most Realistic Vietnam War Movie, December 14, 2002
This movie is billed as the most realistic war movie to come out of our experience in Vietnam. From the ping of mortar rounds leaving their tubes to the crump of their impact, I agree. Its heroes are Vietnam grunts who only want to survive, but who give it their all because their sense of responsibility to each other and to themselves demands it. There are no masterful generals, no crusading journalists, no anti-hero politicians -- just a group of young men caught up in events they didn't control, probably didn't understand, and certainly didn't want.
There is no shortage of combat scenes. Hamburger Hill depicts in gory detail the action that spanned 11 days (May 10-21, 1969) during which the 3rd Battalion of the 187th Airborne (3/187th, the "Rakkasans" of Korean fame) tried and finally succeeded in taking what was labeled on their maps as Hill 937 (meaning it was 937 meters high). Hill 937 was actually one of several ridges that comprised Dong Ap Bia on the Laotian border in the A Shau Valley.
A series of coordinated operations was planned with the intended purpose to clear the valley, deny its use, and disrupt the enemy's plans. These operations would comprise ten battalions of US and ARVN troops that would move into various parts of the valley in a coordinated scheme of maneuver. The Rakkasans of the 3/187th and an ARVN battalion drew the prize: Dong Ap Bia (Ap Bia Mountain), occupied by two battalions of NVA -- some 600 to 900 strong and probably reinforced during the battle.
The movie follows a fictitious infantry squad, along with the supporting medic, and their platoon sergeant and platoon leader. Focusing on a single squad subtly points out how combat in dense terrain becomes very localized. Their link to the outside world is through the platoon leader's radio and the disembodied voice emanating from it that keeps urging them on and asking for SITREPs (situation reports). You quickly understand that despite the frustrations of the war, the growing hostility at home, and the growing racism within the military, they understand that their individual and collective survival depends on each other. This binds them in a way that few other situations can.
The movie's real strength is its attention to detail. Everything has the right look, sound, and feel. From the crack of M-16 rifle rounds, the hollow resonance of the M-79 grenade launchers, and the crump of impacting mortar rounds, to the radio traffic, the banter, jargon, and slang, the locales and locals, the sandbags on the floors of the trucks, the mud, wooden ammo boxes and artillery shell containers littering the base areas, the red filters on the flashlights, etc. I was particularly thankful to be spared the hand grenades and mortar rounds that explode like giant balls of fire so typical of war movies.
The mistakes were few and minor. The biggest error was that there were not 11 assaults up the hill as the movie leads you to believe. May 10 saw the first contact. On each of the next three days (May 11, 12, and 13) the 3/187th conducted a "reconnaissance in force" (RIF) to find the enemy, probing for weak points. Deliberate assaults occurred on May 14, 15, 18, and 20. The days in between were either stand-downs for resupply or aborted assaults due to the inability of supporting ground units to get into position.
No company, thus no squad, was committed to each RIF and deliberate assault. The squad in the movie is a composite of all the squads engaged. The various incidents -- the squad members' deaths, the NVA virtually rolling their grenades downhill on the attacking Rakkasans, the friendly fire, the torrential downpour on May 18 that stopped that day's assault, and so on -- all happened. They just didn't all happen to the same squad.
Other than the platoon leader, the officer chain of command is never seen; rather, they are depicted as disembodied voices over the radio. This is misleading. The command structure at company and below would be on the ground with the troops; battalion command would be either on the ground or in the air, depending on where the battalion commander thought he could best control the battle.
The movie's anti-war message is apparent from the opening credits, which are interspersed with views of the Capitol and the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. The symbolism of our seat of government juxtaposed with the memorial to the fallen is heightened by the wintry sunset reflecting off the Vietnam Memorial.
Rather than a history lesson, the movie is a metaphor for the war in Vietnam: the relentless push to achieve ground of questionable importance despite the high cost in blood. Good men fought and died.
Was it worth it? As the fatalistic mantra among the grunts in the movie said, "It don't mean nothin'." That's a sad, angering attitude until you recall that shortly after the battle was over, we left the hill, as we did with so many other hills, and another NVA regiment moved in and retook possession.
Hamburger Hill doesn't glorify war, but it does show the best attributes of men caught up in war. In so doing it rightfully praises the American soldier. However, one has to conclude that the lives of the men who fought at Hamburger Hill -- the deaths, the anguish, the exhaustion, the physical and emotional wounds -- didn't matter if the capture of the hill didn't ultimately contribute somehow to victory. In the same way, the lives of the men and women who fought in Southeast Asia didn't matter since we didn't prevail in the war. Private Beletsky (Tim Quill) said it all with his silent tear as he surveyed the body-strewn, devastated slope from the summit of Hamburger Hill at the end of the movie.
So, the message is fight to win or don't fight. Make it mean something. That's what some came away from Vietnam with, and that's what makes this a movie worth seeing.
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52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's All Here, October 31, 2004
I served three combat infantry tours in Vietnam, and this is the movie that best captures the realities of the U.S. military field experience there (the other movie that's worth seeing is the more recent "We Were Soldiers"). "Hamburger Hill" has the right music -- the soundtrack is full of songs I never knew the names of, but tunes that I remember hearing in Vietnam and that help to bring back the world as it was then.
You see the ubiquitous helicopters, although no movie, including this one, has ever used anywhere near the number of choppers that were actually used in Vietnam. I've seen as many as 100 around a major operation, but it's rare to see more than a dozen at a time in a movie. I would guess that the cost is prohibitive for movie makers. War is an expensive proposition.
No movie can convey the smells of a place, but "Hamburger Hill" comes close with its images of field conditions, and it catches everything else -- the sights, the sounds, the language, the cliches, the basic training knowledge common to all grunts, the attitudes toward those outside your unit -- including higher command, Vietnamese, media people, and politicians -- and even the social revolution that was rocking America while the troops, who fought for ground that would not be held, knew they would never be allowed to chase the enemy back to his lair, so next week, or next month, or next year you'd be fighting for the same hill again.
For those who were there, this movie takes you back. For those who weren't, this movie, better than any other, tells it like it was. There's a special place in heaven for writers and directors who make truthful art like this.
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