The Green Berets (1968)

Directors:

Ray Kellogg
John Wayne

Writers:

James Lee Barrett (screenplay)
Robin Moore (novel)

Release Date:

27 July 1968 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Drama | War

Tagline:

They had to be the toughest fighting force on earth - and the men who led them had to be just a little bit tougher!

Plot:

Col. Mike Kirby picks two teams of crack Green Berets for a mission in South Vietnam. First off is to...

Plot Keywords:

Green Beret | Beret | Vietnam | Color In Title | Uniform

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

John Wayne	...	Colonel Mike Kirby
David Janssen	...	George Beckworth
Jim Hutton	...	Sergeant Petersen
Aldo Ray	...	Master Sergeant Muldoon
Raymond St. Jacques	...	Sergeant Doc McGee
Bruce Cabot	...	Colonel Morgan
Jack Soo	...	Colonel Cai
George Takei	...	Captain Nim
Patrick Wayne	...	Lieutenant Jamison
Luke Askew	...	Sergeant Provo
Irene Tsu	...	Lin
Edward Faulkner	...	Captain MacDaniel
Jason Evers	...	Captain Coleman
Mike Henry	...	Sergeant Kowalski
Craig Jue	...	Hamchunk

Runtime:

141 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Vietnamese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) (cut) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | UK:PG (video rating) (1986) (1998) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) (1992) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1968) | Finland:K-16 (uncut) (1984) | West Germany:16 (f) | New Zealand:PG | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:G | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Fort Benning, Georgia, USA

Company:

Batjac Productions

Trivia:

Scenes were filmed with Vera Miles as John Wayne's wife but they were cut before release by the studio. Wayne made up for this by casting Miles in his next film Hellfighters (1968).

Goofs:

Factual errors: The mortar tube that the crew is using in the pit is a 4.2 inch (diameter) mortar. Yet they are dropping 81mm rounds down the tube. Also, when a round is fired out of a mortar, it sounds like an explosion, not like a small "poof".

Quotes:

Hamchunk: Was my Peter-san brave?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Howard Stern on Demand: Robert Duvall" (2006)

Soundtrack:

The River Seine

A movie that's better than the movie critics say

Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide gave this movie a rating of BOMB.That is just so ridiculous. Clearly, too many movie reviewers let their anti-Vietnam war politics color their review of this movie. It has some pretty good action scenes and holds your interest the whole way through the movie, although the movie is a little long.This is not a great movie by any means, but it doesn't deserve the absolute ridicule that the mostly left-wing movie critics have given it. Even if you don't like the politics in the movie, I think you can still enjoy it as an action/war film.

One final thing about the movie. The movie critics enjoy making fun of the final scene where John Wayne and the Vietnamese boy walk on the beach as the sun sets in the east. It is patently unfair to single out this movie scene as bad movie-making. Hollywood takes artistic license with movie scenes all the time. Most ignorant actors don't even know how to give a proper military salute when they play a soldier. Settings and locations in movies often have no resemblance to the places they are trying to portray in real life.

In short, forget the politics and just enjoy this decent war movie on its own merits.