The worst film about the war in Vietnam

Hello visitors to blogs. You love films about war? Do you love films about the war in Vietnam? Many wonderful films were shot on this subject. “Salt”, “Apocalypse today”, “Deer Hunter”, “All -metal shell”. They are all good films. The topic of cinema has recently become very popular. People are sitting in self -isolation, I am also sitting in self -isolation. What is there to come up with? I already want to climb the wall, agree? The hashtag #fiveperfectMovies (five perfect films) gained popularity on Twitter. People share the lists of their favorite films or films, which they simply recommend. So, I noticed that one film, which is most often found in the top five, is “back to the future”. What is nice, because this is the favorite childhood film of each of us, or most of us. And this actor plays there, just – my idol, Michael J. Fox. I really don’t know other than this role of others. What am I leading to?

And then I stumbled upon the list of “The Greatest Films about the War” and there was this film, in which he starred in the title role. I was attracted by no participation, how much attitude to the film of American spectators. Namely – many American viewers hate this film, but at the same time there are those who love it. This film simultaneously in the list of the best films about the war in Vietnam and in the list of the worst. How … how is it possible? This is generally legal? I was interested. So I decided to see it ..

The Horror. The Horror.. .

If you played such a game “Spec Ops: The Line” and you liked it and you understood it, then you are familiar with the case when the soldiers committing a crime are trying to find an excuse for themselves. Thus, they are forgotten to accept the terrible act that they committed. The villains in this story found an excuse. This blog will be about the 1989 film “Military Losses”.

So, the film, in fact, is based on a real story that occurred in the fall in 1966 in Vietnam. A detachment of American soldiers captured a Vietnamese girl from the village under the pretext that she is an enemy spy and she urgently needs to be interrogated. They tied her and went to a long patrol. Shortly before this event, their combat comrade died of enemy enemy enemy and in fact this girl needed this way as a way to avenge his death. One of them was against this and in the film he is played by Michael J. Fox. He insisted that it was wrong, but no one listened to him. The character Fox is trying several times to help the girl, but to no avail.

The “incident at an altitude of 192” received universal publicity on October 11, 1969, when an article in the journal New Yorker was published (link to the article www.NewYorker.COM/Magazine/1969/10/18/Casualties-OF-WAR), in which journalist Daniel Lang told this story. Interestingly, the investigation of the crime was very meticulous, up to the autopsy of the victim. Interrogations of all witnesses were also carried out, namely the inhabitants of the village, from where the girl was taken away;Helicopter pilots that simply flew by. All-all, in short. All you can.

The first who dared to make a feature film based on this story was the German film director Michael Ferhyven. In 1970, he showed him at the Berlin Film Festival. There were American filmmakers in the jury and they absolutely did not like the film. They called it anti-American. They started knocking on the table with fists, screaming that all this is a lie and then just left. Therefore, the film “O.TO.»Removed from the program so as not to quarrel with them.

Immediately after that, one of his acquaintances told film director Brine de Palm (a face with a scar, untouchable) this story about the scandal in Berlin and then this thought came to his mind that perhaps someday, when he became more well-known and successful, he should take up the adaptation of this hated story from the New Yorker magazine by all the hated story.

No military losses

The film was not supposed to be born and, nevertheless, https://paddypowercasino.uk/ it was born. She has a rather curious story of the creation that one of the producers in a documentary told.

Brine de Palma began to shoot films a year after the success of the “untouchables”. Due to the fact that the “untouchable” was a superchite in the States and due to the fact that the films about Vietnam were very popular at the box office at that time, Paramount Pictures agreed to shoot. The filmmakers had the feeling that the company’s bosses did not fully realize what it would be about, because they agreed too quickly. And only then when the film was shooting, they denied for no reason. David Reib’s script turned out to be very gloomy, depressed and terrible (like a real story). He himself served in Vietnam, so he knew what he wrote about. Part of the material was shot and most likely my assumption, by that time they read to the middle and realized that they needed to “turn off” everything. The situation was saved by the woman, producer Don Steel, who worked in Columbia Pictures. She had a very good relationship with the directors of this company, and she really liked the story. Thanks to her, the film from Paramount moved to Columbia and they were able to finish it.

As you already understood the “military loss” cinema terrible. I can understand the people who were against creating the film, because some viewers will generalize, and they will say, “all American soldiers are like” or something like that. Although the film itself does not generalize. In the context of the picture, the name “military losses” implies not only innocent victims and soldiers, but also the loss of “humanity”. The main antagonist of the film, played by Sean Penn, was not always a bad person, like three other soldiers in his detachment. Due to resentment and anger, he lost his moral compass, stopped distinguishing good from bad. No soldier is safe from this in war, regardless of nationality. At the same time, the film does not justify such as he.

Brian de Palma fan of Hitchcock and in the film there are moments when he uses “Hitchcokovsky” tricks. For example, the main character who cannot stop the act of violence and he just has to observe from the outside, and with him the audience. A similar scene was in the film “Window to the Dvor”.

This is a horror film, but this is a wonderful horror film, in the sense that it is very well shot and played. He leaves strong emotions. And, despite the very cruel, unpleasant and frightening middle, the final of the film is very enthusiastic.

I Love The Smell of Napalm in the Morning

The film failed at the box office, having received several mixed reviews, for the most part positive, but there were those who reacted very negatively to it. The opinions of film critics differed. For example, the following quotes “The Greatest Film of the War from I have ever seen” or “A boring, dirty, worst film about the war in Vietnam”. Absolutely opposite opinions!

Many pro -American configured spectators, especially veterans of the war in Vietnam, hated the film and the whole story in advance. There were even cases when they got into a chain, blocking the entrance to the cinema. Although in fact, even without this, few people were going to go to the film. The reason for this is obvious. Everyone knew what this film about and how hard it would be to watch it.

I read reviews on IMDB because I was wondering why the film had such a low audience rating. Only 7.1. It seemed to me clearly better than 7.1. It turned out that there were many spectators, most often the Americans, judging by the reviews, scold the film literally for everything that could. “The film is poorly shot, the film is poorly played, the film has terrible music, bad camera work”, “Michael Ju J. Foxes only play in comedies, played terribly ”,“ History of lies and lies, this is propaganda ”.

Most of all I “liked” in quotation marks this review. Incredible text, damn it. Listen, “All American soldiers are heroes, and the film shows some unqualified villains, as if it were Russians during the Second World War under Stalin. Film Trash. Director in prison. Assessment 1/10 “.

Why a little that, right away Russians? At all. (

In fairness, for the sake of positive reviews, twice as many and people write in them such words as “I felt sorry for the girl”, “so they need”, “the main character did the right thing”. The world is not without adequate people who have mind and heart. And it encourages me.

After watching the film, it became interesting to me what Michael J. Fox about this film, about his role. I found this interview on YouTube. This is one of the best interviews that I saw for all the time. He says such correct things. Tells interesting moments from filming. He really liked working with an actress who played this innocent Vietnamese girl and she herself by nationality of the Vietnamese, who immigrated after the war in the United States.

Yes. Here he is. The worst film about the war in Vietnam from the list “The best films about the war in Vietnam”. You know what I thought about after watching it? People love to talk about military films, which of them are better than which is worse. These are all the conversations of aesthetes and wise men. But when the audience is shown real cruelty that really happened, I mean, but after which you cannot sleep peacefully at night, they shout “this is garbage!”. But is it not the meaning of anti -war cinema in order to show the war so that it causes rejection?

There is nothing vulgar or frank in the film. In general it sounds and looks just fine! The film is more pressed by the viewer psychologically. If you understand what I mean. You do not see all the terrible details of what is happening, but you perfectly understand what is happening. Your brain itself finishes the picture. And it scares even more!

I think the film is excellent. More than! On the one side. On the other hand, I can’t fall asleep calmly for the third night. I just close my eyes and see the face of this poor girl. Her eyes full of fear, pain and despair. I can never erase this image from my memory. He will pursue me for the rest of his life. As the authors of Stopgame like to say, draw conclusions yourself.