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MOVIES‘Hamburger Hill’ attacks senselessness of Vietnam WarBy Lou GautCalkins NewspapersWith Hamburger Hilt/' John Irvin intends to convey the total futility of Vietnam by barraging the viewer with the sights and sounds of that insane war and he certainly succeeds. After watch' ing an hour of the film, I kept thinking, Enough, already/'Don't get the idea that the R-rated picture doesn’t work; on the contrary, It works too well, which is just the problem.Watching young, wide-eyed GIs get slaughtered in an insane — and unnecessary — battle leaves one feeling completely drained, infuriatingly helpless and totally depressed.~ A REVIEWThe two other major Vietnam pictures — Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning Platoon and Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket” -examine opposite ends of the Southeast Asia spectrum. Stone shows how the wax brought out the best and worst in America's •soldiers, Kubrick, taking an artist’s approach, analyzes the Marine Corps’ callous methods of systematically preparing soldiers for war. Stone offers an incredibly passionate account of the war; Kubrick provides a totally dispassionate one.Between those two views falls Hamburger Hill, which concerns itself with Operation Apache Snow, a 10-day long, 1969 mission in which troops of the 101st Airborne Division battled their way up the base of Dong Ap Bia, designated Hill 939. After 10 days and 11 bloody assaults, the American troops triumphed, but at a terrible loss of human life.Like Platoon, Hamburger Hill” focuses on a raw recruit.A mortally wounded soldier, Daniel O’Sheo, is attended by Don Cheodle (left) and Tim Quill.Pvt. Beletsky (Tom Quill), but unlike the Stone project, the story contains no good-evil aspects of American forces. Director Irvin treats all of the U.S. troops with a benevolent nobility, most of it represented by a war-weary NCO, Sgt. Frantz (Dylan McDermott), who genuinely cares about the welfare of his men and helplessly suffers as he watches them slaughtered during a senselessmission devised by officers who are obsessed with kill ratios.Hamburger Hill briefly examines the racial undercurrents in Vietnam, something avoided by Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. The black soldiers, led by Doc (Courtney B. Vance), see their front-line duty as the result of social oppression and express their anger to the white soldiers. The complaints fall on deaf ears,since the Caucasians share the same foxholes as the black recruits, who complain that too much Tammy Wynette and not enough Temptations music plays on the radio. The racial element, unfortunately, receives little serious examination, since the script never delves below the issue’s surface.Dramatically, the picture suffers because Irvin rarely differentiates between the soldiers. During battle, mud covers them from head to toe. making it practically impossible to separate the characters. The director establishes the uneasy, exploitative relationship between the soldiers and the Vietnamese, particularly the women who live by prostitution. The men use the Asian women for momentary sexual gratification. while wishing for a round-eye female companion.Hamburger Hill never veers from a politically simplistic approach. Writer Jim Carabatsos paints the protesters in the United States as unfeeling, narrowminded long-hair creeps who hate the fighting men overseas and the soldiers as noble warriors faced with a distasteful task forced upon them.Hamburger Hill spotlights superb technical aspects, with cinematographer Peter MacDonald capturing the blood, sweat and tears shed amidst the visually seductive, lush jungle landscape. (Like Apocalypse Now and Platoon, the film was shot in the Philippines.)Due to the ensemble approach, none of the actors stands out, though McDermott's performance as the grizzled field sergeant remains memorable in the way his sad eyes reflect the pain all around him.After learning about the death of a friend, the soldiers chant, It don’t mean a thing. Initially, the words sound cruel, but the viewer learns that, in order to survive, the soldiers must shield themselves from emotional pain. They don’t even want to learn the names of raw recruits, knowing that those new soldiers will most likely quickly succumb to the lethal dangers of Vietnam.Hamburger Hill ultimately says that the soldiers who fought, suffered and died on that foreign soil did mean something, though the war didn’t. Instead of returning as war heroes, the soldiers who fought a battle of inches on Hamburger Hill came home to face protests and outright disdain. The film, though difficult to watch, at least stands as a memorial to those soldiers who gave up their lives almost two decades ago.
Newspaper Details
Doylestown Intelligencer
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, US
Fri, Aug 28, 1987
Page 25
Full Page
Clipped by
Jon C.
NJ, USA 16 Jan 2020
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