MovieChat Forums > The Green Berets (1968) Discussion > Which Vietnam War Film is least historic...

Which Vietnam War Film is least historically accurate?


The Green Berets or We Were Soldiers?

They're both wildly inaccurate, but the amount of propaganda and outright lies in The Green Berets makes me ill. At least We Were Soldiers is just honestly dumb.

What do you think?

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[deleted]

What are u talking about, hippy?? We Were Soldiers is a true story, hater..

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Platoon but then again it isn't surprising because it is an Oliver Stone film. A majority of his films are thru conspiracy eyes and he even denied 9/11.

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I read "We Were Soldiers Once,...and Young," that was written by the commander of the 1/7 during the engagement, Lieutenant General, USA (R) Harold Moore and the photo-journalist who was there, Joe Galloway. The movie was based on the book and was about as accurate as any war movie ever made.

As for absurdly inaccurate Vietnam war movies I think it is a tie between "Apocalypse Now" and "Full Metal Jacket." At least the latter is outrageously funny until Gomer Pyle goes nuts and shoots the DI.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

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I always took Apocalypse Now to be less of a historically accurate movie and more of one that was meant to capture the surreal insanity of being that war or possibly any war. Full Metal Jacket I think was meant to have the same goal.

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I agree on both your points. Apocalypse Now was based on "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. I admit that I haven't read the book, though I have read a detailed synopsis and it is about the savagery of 'civilized' man. Full Metal Jacket is also based on a book that I haven't read, but Stanley Kubrick never cared about tracking his source material or reality. Both movies used their source material in a contemporary war setting to show the madness and savagery of war.

I agree with the directors that war is savagery. It is the cruelest and most senseless thing that humans do. The problem is that sometimes a country, or a country to be must fight. The decision to fight is often highly controversial at the time (as it should be) and almost as often remains a controversy forever.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

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Respectfully, the OP is way off base in his criticism of "We Were Soldiers" Hal Moore (the actual Battalion CO in the battle played by Mel Gibson) wrote the book on which it is based and acted as a tech advisor. It's not perfect (nothing ever is). Until it came out, "Hamburger Hill" was generally considered among vets as the best effort at being accurate.

Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Deer Hunter all have certain flaws but are also quite well made in many respects. I certainly wouldn't place them at the bottom of the list.

There were a slew of extremely bad VN films made in the 80s attempting to cash in on the success of early films and the POW/MIA concerns of the day. I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to the worst...Missing in Action comes to mind...

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I think ---- Stupid is as Stupid says

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