Screenplay:
James Lee BarrettCinematography:
Winton C. HochComposer:
Miklós RózsaCast:
John Wayne, David Janssen, Jim Hutton, Aldo Ray, Raymond St. Jacques, Bruce Cabot, Jack Soo, George Takei, Patrick Wayne, Luke Askew, Jason Evers, Richard Pryor (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
They were crack troops skilled in techniques of unconventional warfare, the soldiers of the Special Forces - and the focus of this first Hollywood feature film about the Vietnam War. John Wayne headlines and co-directs this red-white-and-blue depiction of America's Vietnam effort, based on Robin Moore's novel. Wayne wrote to President Lyndon Johnson requesting military assistance - and got more than enough firepower to create an impressive spectacle. Its soldiers fit the tried-and-true mould of earlier Wayne war classics like Back to Bataan and Sands of Iwo Jima. Their heroics are timeless. (Warner Bros. AU)
(more)Reviews (2)
This is truly a weak war film. It is unnecessarily drawn out without much of a story to tell. The individual characters are pseudo-dramatic and comedic, which is a shame, especially the humor in certain cases, and the color doesn't suit it well either. It's simply just a war film that happens to have John Wayne.
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This is what happens when, to support pro-war propaganda, you use the forests of North America in the fall to represent the impenetrable jungle of Vietnam and when you cast a pudgy, fifty-one-year-old John Wayne in a role which makes even Rambo look like a sniveling coward. And they meant this deadly seriously. But that is what makes this a perfect, although unintentional comedy.
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