In 1968, the year of Tet and a crescendo of anti-war protests stateside, John Wayne released this film to honor American boys in uniform in Vietnam and what he thought they were doing there. Wayne plays Col. Mike Kirby, who picks two teams of crack Green Berets for a mission in South Vietnam to protect a camp the Vietcong are trying to capture, and to kidnap a North Vietnamese general. David Janssen plays journalist George Beckworth, a doubting Thomas who is easily won over to the cause. Although the film has some exciting battle scenes and details Viet Cong atrocities, it portrays a war in which American soldiers never use drugs or kill civilians, the sun sets over the ocean to the east, and the tropical jungle foliage consists largely of pine forests (because the film was largely shot near Fort Benning, Georgia). Some of the special effects and stunt work are laughably bad, but there's a stirring score by Miklos Rosza. Turn off your brain and prepare to watch an old-fashioned World War II western set in Vietnam, and it's a decent flick.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
