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In the twilight of his career American hawk John Wayne
elected to make a series of increasingly out-of-touch films
probably at a time when he should have called it quits.
I find it interesting that Wayne one of the most hawkish
of American film stars and one of the most conservative
film stars of his era never served in the military and did
just about everything he could to stay out of serving his
country. So it was with a bit of unintended irony that the
one film star that came to personify an American soldier
in films through the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, should never have
served in any capacity to the best of my knowledge. Unlike
fellow film stars such as Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda
(both of whom did serve and, in fact, in the case of Stewart
the action that he saw made him reevaluation his life and
whether or not being an actor really mattered in the course
of human life and death), Wayne never projected the touch
of weariness that other actors portrayed when taking on
the role of a American soldier or military leader. Wayne
was a tremendous icon but when he was allowed to play out
his own film fantasies such as in "The Alamo" and "The Green
Berets" they were usually disasters. ***
By the time that “The Green Berets” arrived in theaters
in 1968 we were only 4 years away from President Richard
Nixon pulling our troops out of Vietnam the conflict that
this film focuses on. The film was greeted with a series
of negative often mocking reviews with its unrealistic portrayal
of the conflict in Vietnam and, if you add in the fact that
the film was shot entirely on location in Georgia (which
looks nothing like Vietnam), you have an artifact of an
era when most Hollywood films were increasingly at odds
with more realistic gritty dramas that were gradually leaking
out to theaters. ***
There’s nothing wrong with patriotism in a film provided
it has a touch of realism and actually touches on the reality
of the nastiness of an armed conflict. It also helps if
the film actually LOOKS like it was shot realistic. “The
Green Berets” which was Wayne’s second film as director
veers wildly into the absurd. After Wayne’s directorial
debut with the promising but overall jingoistic “The Alamo”,
“The Green Berets” was disappointing. Wayne knew enough
to bring in Ray Kellogg (“The Killer Shrews”) to help with
the burden of directing the picture. Although there are
plenty of problems with the direction most of the problems
are in the script written by James Lee Barrett which is
largely static and lacking in action. For a film that’s
2 hours and 20 minutes long that’s a major flaw. Add in
the fact that Wayne seems uncomfortable in the lead role
and you have a recipe for disaster. ***
The single strength of “The Green Berets” is Wayne’s
decision to cast a variety of strong Hollywood versatile
Hollywood veterans including David Jansen as a reporter
initially skeptical and unsympathetic to the beliefs of
the main character, George Takei, Jim Hutton, Bruce, Cabot,
Aldo Rey and others that makes the slow pacing and poor
direction almost forgivable. ***
Col. Kirby (Wayne) takes command of an elite group
of Green Berets. His mission is to kidnap a Vietcong general,
build and maintain a military stronghold in Vietcong territory.
Things don’t turn out quite as planned however when the
stronghold that Kirby faces a massive Vietcong attack. ---
Image & Sound:
Warner has done a terrific job of transferring “The
Green Berets” to Blu-ray. Skin tones look natural throughout
and the overall presentation is crisp and sharp. There are
a few scenes that are a tad soft but, overall, the depth,
clarity and presentation are remarkably vivid. ***
The original mono soundtrack is presented in a lossless
Dolby True HD 1.0 presentation. It sounds fine with nice
dynamic range and dialogue comes across clear throughout.
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