Where's the respect?
This, in my mind, is the best Vietnam film ever made.
Where is everyone? Why such a terrible rating?
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MovieChat Forums > Hamburger Hill (1987) Discussion > Where's the respect?
I dont think its the best, but it was really good, I really liked the scene in the rain when they are trying to climb up that muddy hill, that was really depressing
shareYeah....I retract my statment. I watched Platoon, for the first time, about two hours after watching Hamburger Hill. That was a great film. Loved Hamburger Hill, but Platoon's in my top 20.
Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
This is actually a really good film. The reason it's so underrated is most probably because it was undermined by Platoon, what with Stone being a Vietnam vet and a host of well known/up and coming actors. Hamburger Hill is certainly more fearless in my view. There is no glamour about it. Perhaps this is why most people shy away from it.
Nothing beats Full Metal Jacket.
Yippie-Ki-Yay, Motherf**ker!
I personally prefer Platoon, although to be fair its in my top 5 movies.
Hamburger Hill i dont think suffered becasue its not got big name actors, its just not quite as invloving in Platoon. However it is spectacuarly bleak, and a very good movie.
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This movie is VERY phony when considered to platoon. People didn't all like each other and band together. They didn't get along, and it was tough. They didn't hold each other when they were emotionally un-well.
I am sick of this realistic *beep* You were not there. I know people who were there. Platoon tells it as it is. Movies like this, make vietnam look like WW2 (not the enviroment by any means). And the hooker scene was the most retarded thing put into a war movie. It was an alright movie, but it barley gets a 7 in my book.
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=19776148
You were not there. I know people who were there.
And you're the only one? I suppose that the people you know can speak for everyone? Their experiences were like something from an Oliver Stone film, and thus Stone is the authority on Vietnam?
My father served two tours in Vietnam. His experiences weren't like those in Platoon. He witnessed horrers - but not the atrocities of a Stone film.
I suggest you vary your horizons. Vietnam was hell - as all war is. But the corruption and depravity we've come to know and expect from Hollywood is not representative of all the soldiers who served in Vietnam during the 20 years of American involvement.
With that said, I've since changed my opinion of these movies. Platoon is a great film. I give this film a mid-7. It's still very good in it's own right. And, like We Were Soldiers, shows another side of Vietnam. A side that did exist, but is often ignored for the terrible actions that did occur.
Every war is fictionalized in film. The horrors of WWII are often distilled and muted (for instance, the extremely high civilian casualties), while the horrors of Vietnam are often exaggerated. American culture perceives the wars differently, and this comes out in our films.
...beliefs, we need to be reminded, are beliefs precisely because they are not facts. share
Very well said. I suppose so, I mean most WW2 films don't show stuff like hiroshima, becasue people might take offense. But there are obviously more realistic accounts then others. I.e: Platoon is more realistic then the green barets, and Saving private ryan is more realistic then a bridge too far. Even if the way they are filmed is diffrent, don't you think that stone had more realistic character development in platoon? Apart from the actual realism of the combat or not, I found that hamburger hill had somewhat wooden actors.
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=19776148
To be honest, I don't recall Hamburger Hill as well as I do Platoon. It's been over two years since I've seen it. All I remember are the broad details.
I think Platoon delved more deeply into the effects on the characters. But, then again, the two films had two different goals.
The film deals more specifically with racial tension between the troops, the futility of war itself with the lack of strategic value for this hill, and other (more traditional) themes of war films. I specifically remember the film dealing with new recruits, and the difficulties they face trying to join soldiers already entrenched. The obstacles they have to overcome, and their treatment by their battle tested comrades.
Platoon, like Apocalypse Now before it, deals with more cerebral aspects of war. The inhumanity and chaos of war.
Platoon deals with the here and now conflicts the soldiers faced, not really the emotional trauma.
So deep characterization wasn't necessary in a film like Hamburger Hill.
I try to avoid judging a film only by how much I enjoyed it, I also try to consider the movies intent, and whether or not it succeeded. With Hamburger Hill, I think it did. While I no longer consider it the greatest Vietnam film ever made, I still think it's underrated and largely forgotten.
When dealing with Vietnam, Americans prefer to be reminded of how horrible the war was. Of the conflict between the government and the "people" (specifically, young Americans and academics). Movies like Hamburger Hill and We Were Soldiers, though they have merit in their own right, fail to strike a cord with Americans because they defy our notions of what Vietnam was like
But I don't think that makes them bad movies. Because they show a side that did exist. Camaraderie does exist among soldiers, as do courage and loyalty. And not every soldier in Vietnam shot children and burned villages for little reason.
They're completely different movies, with entirely different goals.
...beliefs, we need to be reminded, are beliefs precisely because they are not facts.
"People didn't all like each other and band together. They didn't get along, and it was tough. They didn't hold each other when they were emotionally un-well."
Of course they banded together, the fact that some people disliked others is either here nor there, the fact is, if you don't band together and fuction as one, you're all going to die.
In a situation like that, you haven't got the comforts of home, you haven't got your wife or girlfriend to talk to, you can't get into your car and take a drive to clear your head. So you've got to depend on each other for some faux emotional support that's going to to give you the drive to go back into battle and watch some more comrades die
And please, don't claim to know people who were there like it's some big achievement, and any vet that can easily recount the horrors of vietnam probably didn't see alot of action.
Well said.
...beliefs, we need to be reminded, are beliefs precisely because they are not facts.
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"Platoon" and "Full Metal Jacket" both sucked.
Both too high-profile, preachy, and kind of self-righteous.
"Hamburger Hill" just "was", without the sermons or judgements; without showing the heroics or the "dark side" of American G.I.'s.
Which is what it's all about. American Troops are neither saints nor sinners when the lead starts flying, they just "do".
And "do" it damn well.
Refusal to believe does not negate the truth.
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people are idiots sometimes, this movie deserves a much higher rating.
shareToo bad that a historically accurate movie isn't always the most entertaining movie.
shareI thought this movie was cheesy at first, and came across as more like a WW2 movie. There were some cliches: the angry black man, the battle hardened sergeant, the tough Italian kid, the dumb country boy, the smooth, slick guy etc. Also, some of the dialogue was self-consciously realistic. It sounded like the writers kept consulting a Vietnam slang dictionary.
Ultimately, however, all that fell by the wayside and the movie's real meaning and message came through loud and clear. This movie had heart and soul and absolutely rose above it's flaws. You get to know these men, care about them, and then watch them die.
It made me think about the Vietnam war, and war in general, and aroused deep feelings, emotions and memories in me. Hamburger Hill definitely has a rightful place in the pantheon of great Vietnam war movies.
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