Fifty Years Ago
The release of Alex Garland’s gritty combat movie, Warfare, on March 28, brings to mind some essential (and better) Vietnam combat pictures, such as the vastly underestimated Hamburger Hill, made by John Irvin in 1987.
The lengthy, bloody Vietnam War, which began in 1955, came to a chaotic end on April 30, 1975, when North Vietnamese forces stormed the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon.
Crowds of Vietnamese people try to enter the U.S. Embassy, and though about 5,500 were evacuated, many were left behind.
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Theatrical release poster
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Nor does Hamburger Hill offer American jingo heroism, whicy is manifest in Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo and other pictures.
Instead, this relentlessly grim film recreates the repeated attacks on Hill 937, and the disastrous consequences in human toll.
The hill, located in the Ashau Valley in Vietnam, became the target of the 101st Airborne Division in May 1969, when troops continually stormed it and suffered heavy losses after each assault.
The drama focuses on one of these squads of 14 young grunts, who seem more at home behind the wheel of their cars, or on a beach with their dates, than attacking an obscure hill thousands of miles from home.
Plagued by racial discord, individual clashes, an indifferent home front and a belligerent media as well as a stubborn enemy, they fortify themselves against the almost suicidal task by recalling their pride in being members of the 101ST, the “Screaming Eagles.”
Going for sheer realism, Hamburger Hill depicts the battle sequences with dismemberment and mutilation. The men are picked off one at a time as they struggle up the hill. In the end, only four members of the squad survive the battle.
Early one, a tough, compassionate sergeant senses the reality of the war. “We did good today, didn’t we” one of his squads asks proudly after his first battle. “One of my people got killed,” the sergeant replies quietly, “that’s all that happened.”‘
Significantly, a bitter black medic sees only black soldiers being killed in a “white man’s” war. “Take the hill,” he pleads before he dies in the embrace of two white soldiers.
In between attacks, the shrinking platoon tries to rest, chatting about social unrest back home. A soldier named Bienstock is devastated by a letter from his girlfriend, whose college friends have told her that it is immoral to remain with a soldier. Anther, Worcester, describes to his comrades the alienation and hostility from anti-war college students, and of his marriage breakdown when he returned from previous tour of duty. He tells of a good friend, whose son had been killed in Vietnam, who receives cruel phone calls gloating over his son’s death.
Irony plays a role in the film. After days of fierce assaults upon the hill and heavy casualties (as high as 70 percent), the American troops finally dislodged the North Vietnamese regulars, but a new policy orders to, abandon the spot one month later.
Impressively stripped of any metaphorical meaning, Hamburger Hill is a tough movie to watch, a reminder of a harrowing experience that should always be remembered.
The movie’s epilogue is a poem by Major Michael Davis O’Donnell, dated January 1, 1970, in Dak To, which reads as follows: “If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may not have always. Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.”
In a 2021 interview, Irvin said that “if Paramount had been a bit braver,” Hamburger Hill should have been released before Platoon and Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. But because Vietnam was not considered a popular subject, Paramount wanted to see how Platoon performed at the box office.
Cast
Tegan West, Lt. Eden, Platoon Leader M16A1
Steven Weber, Worcester, Platoon Sergeant M16A1
Dylan McDermott, Frantz, 3rd Squad Leader M16A1
Courtney B. Vance, Doc, Medic M16A1
Michael Patrick, Boatman, Motown Rifleman M16A1
Harry O’Reilly, Duffy Machine Gunner M60
Daniel O’Shea, Gaigin, Assistant Gunner/ Machine Gunner M16A1
Michael Dolan, Murphy, Radioman M16A1
M.A. Nickles, Galvan Rifleman M16A1
Don Cheadle, Washburn, Rifleman/ Machine Gunner M16A1
Tim Quill, Beletsky, Rifleman-Grenade Launcher M16A1
Credits:
Directed by John Irvin
Written by James Carabatsos
Produced by Marcia Nasatir, Carabatsos
