Favourite War Film/Tv series

[predator20]

Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira

That "What me worry" thing is from Mad Magazine.
Look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Neuman

Check the cultural impact section. They reference Platoon in the last paragraph. I seen a few soldiers in vietnam with Alfred E. Neuman in their helmets. Seems to me the actor that played the Lieutenent knew about that.

I hate how some soldiers in the movie don't wear helmets. Elias never wears a helmet through the entire movie. I seen a lot of soldiers say that they would never go into battle withouth a helmet. Especially because in Vietnam most soldiers would customize their helmets. They would become attached to them. The helmet became a personal item and part of the uniform.

Also, i'm the only one that thinks it's hilarious that Dale Dye wanted to make a cameo as a dead body being carried away in a body bag?

I didn't even notice Elias not wearing a helmet. I guess since he didn't wear one throughout the entire film it's not as noticeable.

Dye said they need a body for the body bag. So he volunteered so it would be full weight.

[Ace Oliveira]

I just bought a Platoon DVD. It's going to arrive at my house in about 4 or 5 days.

[predator20]

Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira

I just bought a Platoon DVD. It's going to arrive at my house in about 4 or 5 days.

Which DVD did you buy? Mine is the $10 special edition listed at Amazon. After I bought it, they come out with the 2-disc collectors edition. Pissed me off. I'm too cheap to buy it again, even though there are more features it seems like.

[Ace Oliveira]

The special edition. For 19,90 reais. Pretty nice for such a famous movie.

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Spartan198

Probably, if it only has one pilot and you put that round through his head.

Here, it was through the engine. Of course, because the production was so low-budget and they didn't want to wreck a real Huey, the crash was depicted by showing the chopper parked in the middle of a paddy with fake smoke emitters, and the pilot shown lying dead nearby.

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Mandolin

The ARVN was, as MT2008 pointed out, largley inept and incompetent. However, their marines, airborne, and some other units made the US Army look bad. They could operate efectivly in the jungle, kept their weapons clean, and overal were very good. Try reading Norman Schwarzkopf's autobiography, or Battle Ready by Tom Clancy and Gen. Tony Zinni. The VC/ NVA perspective would be alternating between running from B-52 raids, hiding in tunnels systems, and sapper attacks. What would be realy interesting, though, would be a movie from the perspective of South Korean Marines. They made almost all US units look bad. They were a bunch of little karate masters running around the jungles with M16s, to the detriment of any bad guys in the area.

Interesting.

As for an NVA/VC film, I think I'd be interesting. It might dissuade all of the "Red Dawn" fans who think they could wage a guerrilla war against a Soviet-type invading force on American soil. From what I've read, those guys went through utter hell, and yet they still kept fighting.

[Ace Oliveira]

That's what made the North win the war. For some reason the Victor Charlie and PAVN didn't give up. They simply won't give up. We would throw everything at them and they would just fight back or hide. I could never figure out why they didn't give up.

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira

That's what made the North win the war. For some reason the Victor Charlie and PAVN didn't give up. They simply won't give up. We would throw everything at them and they would just fight back or hide. I could never figure out why they didn't give up.

Because poor people make tough soldiers, especially guerrillas. And in the 1960s, almost nobody in the world was as poor as the Vietnamese peasantry. They can endure conditions that most of our soldiers can't.

Of course, the VC was not quite as good as sometimes thought. One thing that's often overlooked is that they were on the retreat by 1972.

[Ace Oliveira]

That's true. The Charlie didn't actually scare US soldiers though. They inflicted heavy casualties but they weren't some kind of boogeyman to the US personnel. And as the war progressed, the Vietcong got more and more conventional. During the 1960s they were guerrillas but after 1972 the North made them more conventional. Till 1975 they got integrated into the Vietnam Army. That was just after the war thought.

[Ace Oliveira]

Alright, i got the Platoon DVD yesterday. I watched it then i watched the movie with the Oliver Stone commentary on.

It seems most of the stuff Oliver says in the commentary contradicts what most civilians think about the Vietnam War and the United States after they see the movie. Hell, he called some of the American soldiers he meet there "Natural Born Warriors". He never says anything bad about the real Ssgt Barnes. The real Barnes seemed like a nice guy. Got shot in the head and survived, married a japanese women and came back to Vietnam. He never says anything bad about the real Tex while the Tex in the movie looked like someone that would side with movie Barnes in the Village scene. Stone said the real Lt. Wolfe was a nice guy. Something i found funny was how he said the "good ole boys" were good soldiers. Which i found weird because all the rednecks in the movie are assholes with confederate flags in their barracks and commited war crimes. I found all that confusing. His movie shows the platoon being full of war criminals even though Stone seems to talk more about how you can't really blame the soldiers for acting like dicks to the new guys and shooting civilians because they are tired and they felt like shit in the jungle. It's almost like he is apologizing for what the soldiers are doing in the movie.

Also, Stone didn't talk about Ace. The only thing he said is that Ace is or was a Radio writer from Texas. I don't know if he was referring to Ace in that particular scene though.

Now i'm off to watch the Dale Dye commentary.