dana-27

The Duke did not even have billing, yet the strength of what John Wayne stood for was the anchor of this movie.

And this movie... the truth and the horror of why men fight.

This movie should be required watching before anyone should be allowed to talk about either side of war, any war.

It is not about religion, right, wrong, good or bad. It is about why men fight.

dana

This movie is not for deep thought, like Simon's Goodbye Girl, or to make you hurt, like Simon's Cinderella Liberty, but just to entertain regular people who dream of glamour and fame.

It does just that. See it at least once.

And then, the sound track... goosebumps all over.

I loved this movie, and it is a joy to watch.

It has been termed simplistic and a fairy tale.

OK...

But the whole movie is made in one scene and i find no one else has mentioned it. Here's a clue.

This movie is built completely around the scene where the new ensigns each give a tribute to Foley. This scene is mentioned often as the 'over the top' which got the excellent Lou Gossett his oscar. Watch it and see if you can spot it.

The first time around, I was so shocked not to see Robert and Tommy, all that could go through my mind was how bad this production must be.

The second time around, after i had had a little talk with myself, i snapped on reality. If i wanted to watch Lonesome Dove, all i had to do was go buy the video. (strangely, i had already bought the video and worn the cassette out, but guys can get so focused on trivia).

This is not Lonesome Dove, this is a new story with new actors and actresses faced with a chore greater than good acting. They have to live with Lonesome Dove, the greatest mini in history. And they have to tell us a new story.

Now, I don't have the nerve of Jon or Barbara, i would never have tried it, but they did. And they did a damn fine job.

The second time i watched this mini, i enjoyed it a lot. As well as a chance to think of old friends, i got to meet new ones. And it was a good tale, told in a good way. It may not totally get to Lonesome Dove standards, BUT WHAT DOES?? If we measure everything against Lonesome Dove, we could throw away our tv's. And to be fair, if we measure everything else against Return to Lonesome Dove, we might not throw our tv's away, we would just unplug them for the evening.

I liked it. It is a good mini. I hope you each will watch it twice. The second time, you might just enjoy it. Robert and Tommy will not mind, I promise.

i had bragged on this film so much over the last year that i finally pleaded with IMDB to include it, and they did (thank you).

i finally got home from a contract and found several folks had put in comments ahead of me. i respect these opinions expressed and am pleased that the film got such an immediate group of comments.

this movie is a shocker, and much of what it says is too painful to be accepted by most folks. i am not going to defend it... it is worthy of standing alone. but if you watched it and found it another RAH-RAH WE ARE AMERICANS film, a john wayne we win in the end shootem-up, then consider watching it again, but pretend you come from america, home of the north viet nam peoples and the round eyes are the invaders from a place far away and unimportant.... then see if you can count the autocracies committed in the name of their backward, wrong country. no, this is not a routine movie, not by any sense of the word.

by the way, Lee Ermey is a genuine, real live viet nam war hero, multiple tours, a leader of men... his performance is over the top for those of you who weren't there, but for us guys who had 3 feet of piled dirt between us and 500 of them at one time or the other, nothing sounded so good as a gruff old man saying that if we did as we were told, we would live to see morning.

catch Lee in 'purple hearts'

This movie had everything money could buy, full metal jacket with robert de Niro and the Meryl. (perhaps it was actually a sleeper date movie??)

not one original idea that could not be found in any of a dozen WWII movies and not one thought given to the mix of them and us and war and loss and God. just poor little us, we got so scarred and it's all their fault.

well, this is my opinion, so don't blame the management. but if you want to have a minute's taste of the war i and my friends fought, get a copy of 'siege of firebase gloria', 'go tell the spartans', 'gardens of stone', 'hamburger hill', and if you want big budget... 'aliens II' (no typo, folks...)

for that matter, about 6 minutes of 'forest gump' gets closer than this fluff.

again, my opinion

There are 3 real movies about viet nam. This one is different because the whole movie takes place in America. Lose the plastic coated fantasies, and watch these three movies if you want to know how it was, man.

Gardens of Stone, Go Tell the Spartans, Assault on Firebase Gloria

This tv show was so far ahead of it's time, not even the Open Records Law could protect it.

There is one episode that tells the depth of how much the writers knew and what they should not be telling.

Raynor makes his first trip to Viet Nam, at the request of RFK, to report back the fitness of the goverment there to receive aid from the USA to the president.

What he learns there summarizes the whole Viet Nam war. And explains the astonishment of 99% of the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who served in that theater.

But, I will not name the episode, because the series can only be really savored if you see them all.

A 10, really, a 10.

This movie was not made, even in the mid-sixty's, to be taken seriously. It was made to provide, (as was Gidget), a starting point to consider how they would handle the (then) outrageous situations that Gidget got herself into.

Deborah was great in the part, not taking herself or the movie more seriously than just posing the plot as it was written.

This is not a movie a casual person would buy, but it is well worth watching on TV.

Also, one could have a pretty good time watching the Gidget character evolve as multiple actresses played the part.