Review of Hamburger Hill (1987) by Jairo G — 25 Jan 2009

"It don't mean nothin'" is the characters' refrain in this film, and the main characteristic that makes this film worth watching. An honest-to-goodness war pic in the spirit of classics like The Longest Day, the campaign to take Hill 937 is memorialized in this film by the name the troops bestowed upon it: Hamburger Hill. Though it was the late 80s, and while this film has some elements that suggest that it might have been at least partially directed at the Iron Eagle/Steven Seagal demographic, a much more important target audience for this film is probably veterans of the Vietnam War who, like those who watched (e.g., again) The Longest Day, were given the opportunity to see their own experience of a battle and a platoon dissected and re-created on the big screen... a basically true Vietnam War story among the thousands filmmakers have been scared to tell, minus the soapboxing of Oliver Stone, Stanley Kubrick and others. (Not to take anything away from Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Full Metal Jacket.).

Hamburger Hill is a loyal film - opening with the Vietnam memorial and closing with a dedication to those lost in this battle and the war as a whole - and it's a portrayal not necessarily of the war, but of the people in the war. In one sense, I couldn't care much about the characters, because there are so many and they aren't very developed, but in another sense, the device works: in a platoon and war such as this one, a soldier doesn't really get to know his (her) peers so well - re-assignments and casualties very quickly get in the way. Some bonds do form, though, and Dylan McDermott (who, until now, I never liked in The Practice or anything else) played the role of the Sergeant very well, displaying his compassion for his men, and his understanding of the aspects of all of their personalities. (The film also features an early performance by Don Cheadle, and one of my favourite sitcom actors of all-time, Brian from Wings, Steven Weber.).

Protest, race relations, bureaucracy and media sensationalism are all in the background, but while some may call the portrayal of these aspects of the war dismissive, I concur with the soldiers' opinion that the film presents: it don't mean nothin'. This is a film about the experience of a group of men fighting together, and probably more for each other than for any of the supposedly noble goals of God or country or apple pie or communist containment, or whatever the hell that war was about. Real men went, and real men died, and this is a film that doesn't lack in realism in making its point. Some parts could have been better - for the last 10 minutes everyone is wearing way too much eyeliner, for example - but at the risk of over-intellectualizing a simple war movie, I'm going to say it: I truly think that this is a misunderstood film, and one too often overlooked in the Vietnam canon.