As a wise old nobody probably once said, “War is an all-you-can-eat buffet of hell.” Such a crappy analogy can almost be perceived as true, too — unless John Wayne’s about, of course, in which case the buffet opts to bring out the salad bar and dessert trays as well. And the main course? Ham. Lots and lots of ham. Just look at any old John Wayne war film for confirmation. Bombs go “boom,” guns go “rat-a-tat-tat,” and atrocities are committed all around. In the midst of it all is The Duke running about, making semi-poetic speeches about freedom. Or something along those lines.
And then there’s The Green Berets, another in a long line of routine John Wayne vehicles that takes our hero to the Vietnam War.
OK, off the top of your head, how many pro-Vietnam War films can you think of? Most people would probably be hard-pressed to even think of one, so I guess it’s a good thing that The Green Berets was a John Wayne film — otherwise it would have surely wound up on the Obscure Pro-Vietnam War Film list, right alongside A Yank In Viet-Nam. Controversial in its own day, John Wayne’s 1968 war flick was made at a time in which American citizens were torn about war — and, instead of offering us up with the nightmarish visuals that later films like Apocalypse Now would do, The Green Berets gives us a positively “sunny” (in every sense) look at Vietnam.
The film begins with a group of international journalists witnessing a display put on by the army, to which the members of the press are allowed to ask questions of the soldiers (what sort of strange foreign universe is this?). One reporter in particular, played by The Fugitive’s David Janssen, is not so keen on the war — in fact, he is downright pessimistic about it. Fortunately, the great Aldo Ray is there to explain to him (and the other reporters as well as the audience) that the war is necessary — otherwise, the Communists (remember them?) will surely kill us all in our sleep. It’s really-terribly-awfully-kind-of silly, but it pretty much gives you an idea on how to take the film the rest of the way through.
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