HAMBURGER HILL
US, 1987, 110 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Barrile, Dylan Mc Dermott, Don Cheadle, Courtney B. Vance.
Directed by John Irvin.
Hamburger Hill was one of several films on Vietnam that was released in 1986-87. The most prominent were Oliver Stone's Platoon with its focus on the group of men in the isolation of Vietnam, their struggles within the platoon, the critique of America's involvement in the war. It was also the time for Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the scathing presentation of training of Marines, the media in Vietnam, the experience of combat and its futility. This film also focuses on one platoon, although its action takes place in '69, the year after Platoon and Full Metal Jacket.
The film was written by James Carabatsos (writer of Clint Eastwood's rather gung-ho story of Granada, Heartbreak Ridge, and the thriller No Mercy). The film was directed by John Irvin (whose career has veered between action thrillers like Dogs of War, Schwarzenegger's Raw Deal and the Patrick Bergen Robin Hood to quieter films like Turtle Diary with Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley). Ervin worked as a documentary cameraman covering the Vietnam war.
The film uses the convention of focusing on one platoon, its sustaining of heavy casualties, its attack on Hamburger Hill and the diary presentation of the attack over a period of ten days or more. The film is quite relentless in its presentation of the attempts to take the hill, the interaction amongst the men themselves, especially black and white, their antagonism towards the liberals and longhairs back home (who seme to be more of the enemy than the North Vietnamese soldiers whom they respect as soldiers). The film is grim in its ending, the taking of the bare hill with enormous casualties and then its being abandoned.
The musical score is by Philip Glass. A range of songs from the period are also used as background. As with many of the films about Vietnam, it was filmed in the Philippines.
1.A Vietnam War story of 1987 looking at 1969 in retrospect? The visualising of the war, immersing audiences in the experience of the war? An assessment almost 20 years later?
2.The Philippine locations standing in for Vietnam? The valley, the hill, the camp? The action sequences and stunt work and effects? The atmospheric musical score? The background of contemporary songs?
3.The title and its ironic tone? The memories of World War Two and Korean War movies - Pork Chop Hill?
4.Vietnam in 1969, the year after '68 and its devastation? The American troops, their morale, interactions amongst themselves, tensions between black and white? Drugs? Authority and morale? The hostility towards the liberals, towards the hippies back home? Uniting the soldiers with a common enemy? The attitude towards the Vietnamese, the North Vietnamese soldiers, the Viet Cong? The reasons for the Americans being there, critique or affirmation? The possibilities for winning the war?
5.The picture of the platoon, in action, the casualties in Ashau Valley, resting? With the prostitutes? Letting go? The three black men transferred to the unit? The air attack and the deaths? Sergeants France and Worcester presiding over the induction, the new recruits? The morale speech about the toughness of the North Vietnamese army?
6.How well delineated were each of the characters in the platoon? The blacks, Doc, Motown, Mc Daniel? Their stances, hostility towards the whites? The contrast with the whites, including France and Worcester, Biletsky, Washburn, Languilli, Bienstock? Put together for this combat? All Americans, their background? Some surviving, some dying?
7.The diary style of the attack on the hill, from May 10 to May 20? The audience being immersed in the combat of the platoon? Their attitudes, their fighting, their suffering, casualties, the slow progress?
8.The return to the valley, Mc Daniel killed by the sniper? The next day and the command to take the hill, their inability to move up, the heavy fire? The air power coming in, taking the bunker, the irony of the Americans killed by `friendly fire' from the helicopter? The continued fighting, the breaks and their sitting around talking, the importance of reading the letters from home?
9.Combat and the return and the reaction to the squad being filmed, the newsreel team, France and his attack on them? The criticism of the media and its handling of the war?
10.The rain, the mud, the casualties, Doc being wounded? The build-up to the final assault, the devastation in the attack, the deaths? The prize of the hill - scorched earth?
11.The finale and the revelation that the hill was secured and then abandoned? A symbol of the futility of the war, the managing of the war, the effect on morale? A picture of 1969 - and the retrospect of the '80s?
