This has to be up there with the big budget 'nam movies like apocalypse now, platoon, full metal jacket etc etc.
It achieves a level or realism not seen in todays theatres.
Highly recommended.
(when i first watched this i though it was acutal real footage peiced together from recovered reels)
better i think (imho, based on my criteria of war movies) than any of the others-
platoon: a good depiction of soldier's experience in (the vientnam) war, but the black and white morality play infringes on the reality that stone seeks to achieve.
fmj: a great film about humanity and how it lives or dies (or anywhere in between) under military indoctrination....less about vietnam per se, but more about psychology (ie, the "jungian thing" that joker halfheartedly makes reference to that idiot colonel at the gravesite)
apocalypse now: like fmj, less about the vietnam conflict than about psychology (like conrad's heart of darkness in which it is based, it explores willard's descent into the dark heart of humanity symbolically by the journey into the nung river in the quest for kurtz)
my criteria for a good war movie, and like the war movies of late, are realities portrayed of the typical soldier's experience without regards to the overarching reasons (ie politics) of why [this particular] war happened.....
like blackhawk down, or saving private ryan, or das boot, or 84 charlie mopic...it just plain shows what matters most to those guys on the ground: getting the job done in the worst of circumstances, or saving your fellow brother in arms, or getting home....etc. these movies are the most honest, and imho, the most positive in portraying the best in humanity.....heroes in every sense of the word (not like john wayne in "the green berets")!
Agreement.
...Guess What S1m0ne! We have now entered an age where we can manufacture fraud faster than our ability to detect it
You're nuts. It was a piece of crap.
There was so much wrong with this movie. The handheld camera work and documentary feel to it was OK, but the overall impression was that it was written by a teenage Vietnam War buff, who found a glossary of slang used in that era, and figured that if he loaded the script with that slang, the movie would be realistic. Instead, the dialog sounded just like guys trying to work all those expressions into a sentence. It did not work.
And what's up with all that gear they had? Clean, pressed clothes?
Jeez, there's so much wrong with this movie, I had to stop watching it. I came back, and tried again. And again. It was an amateurish piece of crap.
Excellent post. I couldn't agree more!
shareSaving Private Ryan? You had me until you mentioned that piece of crap. Depicting German soldiers as retards with shaven heads. The good GI Jew and the evil SS guy. Far from a depiction of soldiers' experience, it's more like a cartoon by a master propagandist.
shareI've always liked this film, it usually being shown on British tv late at night on some obscure channel. It's currently getting airtime on actionmax I believe.
A true gem of a movie
totally agree, absolutely superb and with a clever but not 'yeah right' twist at the end ...but dont let that word put you off, it's a stroke of bloody genius and perhaps one of the finest 'Nam films ever made....simple as that..and a flippin good depiction of any war for that matter...excellent..and a pathetic budget too.....makes a lot of 'big budget' war films bow their heads in shame...trust me...I havent seen it in perhaps 18 years and I can still remember key scenes in it, the walk thru the pampas grass, the chopper ending, the little vingettes to camera by each of the batallion...very up close and personal...very believable and very sad...get a copy...
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Signup-46, I am like you. If I had not recognized Richard Brooks (asst d.a. robinnette from Law and Order), I too would have continued to think 84 Charlie Mopic to be a true documentary.
shareFirst saw it in the 90's and STILL love it... am so glad I finally got it (here in Australia) on DVD.
It was Glenn Morshower for me (I 'knew' him from an X-Files episode) that confirmed this wasn't actually 'real'; that at Pretty Boy's death, which seemed just a little too Hollywood (I'd seen the SAME scene in another film - The Last Outlaw - in fact!).
What I love, though, is that if someone had handed me the tape with no video box or info, and cut off the end credits, I really WOULD have thought this was a genuine doco! Certainly, when it opened, I was trying to figure out if it was or not.
I adore Platoon, Hamburger Hill, and a lot of other 'nam films, but 84C MoPic is still IMO seems the 'best' at portraying "what it was like" to someone who wasn't there, and is still probably the most affecting war film I've ever seen.
Without a doubt (imo)the best Vietnam war movies ever made. Everything else pales in comparison.
God bless,
Stitch
What IS this crap???
I watched the movie on the basis of all this praise. Hell, any 12-year-old can see it's a completely unrealistic piece of crap. CRAP!!!
All I can say is there must be a lot of shills planted in this comment section, because this is one piece of unrealistic, staged, amateurish JUNK.
It was written and directed by Vietnam veteran Patrick Duncan.
https://veterans.nv.gov/meet-cast-and-crew-of-vietnam-war-movie-84-charlie-mopic/
Of course, one could argue that he didn't do a good job of writing and directing. But it may be more realistic than you believe it to be.
I have to agree. I was born after Vietnam, but having seen many movies about the era, this is the best.
I have a bit more appreciation for the movie the first time I saw it back in 1994 on VHS, because I am currently the same job in the US Army as this movie is titled. The old MOS (Military Occupation Specialty)was 84C(Charlie), it is now 25V (Victor); was a short time 25P until we merged with still photographers 25S.
I too thought the film was ACTUAL combat documentation for the first 30-45 minutes. Great film, is ment to be a bit grainy looking, quality of film for THAT time period, even though it was shot in 1989.
This movie still holds up.
Great, memorable charcters and scenes.
As much as I love Saving Private Ryan, did anyone else here notice how the sniper scene seemed lifted from this?
the sniper scene in saving private ryan was inspired by a real us marine who picked off a charlie sniper who he was engaging thru the scope and entering his eye all scenes where a sniper gets shot thru his scope is inspired by that story
shareI think Tropix is talking about how the sniper in both movies tried to suck in the other team members by only wounding his target. I'm sure that tactic has been around for a long, long time but I think it was "popularized" by the german snipers in ww1.
I think the story you're thinking of lvfd is from Carlos Hathcock's book, where he in fact did kill an enemy sniper by shooting him through the scope.
i heard about this movie a few years back when i read an online review by a vietnam veteran, and he said it was so realistic he came out in cold sweats. my question is, is it really that realistic?
shareIt is really is that realistic, yes.
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It is one of the best.
"Charlie Mopic 84" and the Australian Vietnam war film "The Odd Angry Shot" are the two best Vietnam movies in my opinion.
Or "Boys in Company C" "Go tell the Spartans" and "A Rumor of war"
shareThanks, Badlands1... I'd forgotten A Rumor of War until reading your post!!!
shareDon't forget about:
-CYCLO
-GO TELL THE SPARTANS
-HEAVEN & EARTH
-REGRET TO INFORM
-THREE SEASONS
-A RUMOR OF WAR
-THE VETERAN
-HEARTS & MINDS
-IRON TRIANGLE
-SIEGE OF FIRE BASE GLORIA
-THE KILLING FIELDS
-LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY
-BOYS IN CO. C
-JACOBS LADDER
-DEAR AMERICA
-ANDERSON PLATOON
-VIETNAM WAR STORY 1, 2, 3
-ODD ANGRY SHOT
-BAT 21
-FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER
-WINTER SOLDIER
-IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG
the sniper scene in saving private ryan was inspired by a real us marine who picked off a charlie sniper who he was engaging thru the scope and entering his eye all scenes where a sniper gets shot thru his scope is inspired by that storyBullsh!t. You're a typical uninformed and ignorant yank. That story has been told in WWI, Spanish Civil War, WWII etc etc. Lift your head out of your parents basement and you might learn something kid. share
You're kidding me. You thought it was REAL???
Dude, there's plenty of real stuff on YouTube, and you NEED to watch it. Good grief, I had trouble believing it was even a real movie. When the credits rolled, I was surprised to see it wasn't just somebody's weekend project for film class. High school film class.
It's trash.
I saw this movie just once on VHS ten years ago, and it's stayed with me since then. It's one of my favourite movies, beyond a vietnam film, or a war film.
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