I found a DVD set of 14 John Wayne movies for $30. I also have a few on my computer, so I have plenty of movies ready to go! I like to watch them when I miss my dad, and I'm glad I have lots of choices now. I picked this one because John Wayne is one of the directors, and I wasn't quite in the mood for a western.
The movie is set during the Vietnam War. Bulldog (Wayne) is sent over to help establish a base, and later on, there's a whole side quest to capture a general.
That's a very bare bones summary of the movie. I got a bit teary-eyed at the end, which I wasn't expecting. I then did a bit of research into the film. The first thing I saw was this movie has a 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. What?! So, I looked a bit deeper, and I understood. The movie was released while the war was still going on, and critics were labeling it as propaganda.
My view is a bit different. I know the Vietnam War was incredibly divisive. I didn't go into this movie expecting an accurate depiction of what was going on in Vietnam. I'm a person that is more affected by the characters in movies. I like to care about the people, and I think that was what John Wayne was going for with this film. A few of the tidbits I read on Wikipedia support that line of thought. One of them mentioned Wayne wanted more character development, but Warner Bros. needed more action.
Also, George Takei was in this, and I thought that was cool. Apparently his participation in this movie helped Chekov become a bigger character on Star Trek. That's pretty nifty if you ask me!
Anyway, I liked this movie. I recognized a few of the actors from McLintock! One of them was John Wayne's son! It's not a popular opinion, I guess, but I liked the characters, and I liked the story. I wasn't judging anyone (except for the journalist), so I'm giving it a Good Movie! review.
No comments:
Post a Comment