Review of The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1989) by Allan C — 24 Jun 2014

I recorded this off MGMHD and figured I was going to get a Michael Dudikoff quality of Vietnam war film, but during the opening credit when I saw that Brian Trenchard-Smith was the director, my attention level perked up.

Trenchard-Smith is the director of some excellent Ozploitation flicks, including the classic bit of nastiness "Escape 2000" and the under appreciated "Dead End Drive-In". I then hit IMDB and read some comments form users claiming to be Vietnam vets who testified to the film's authenticity, so then I figured that maybe this will be a decent flick.

Sure Wings Hauser is kind of a joke, but who downs't like anything with R. Lee Ermey in it. Coming off of his amazing performance in "Full Metal Jacket", Ermey provided the film's narration, which works great.

I remember at the time, some critics dismissing Ermey's performance in "Full Metal Jacket", saying he was merely playing himself. This film, made just a year later, really does show that Ermey has some acting chops, playing a full range of emotions outside of a one-note (though unbelievably captivating) drill instructor.

Sadly, the same can't be said for the acting talents of Wing Hauser. The film is essentially a siege style war story, ALA "Fort Apache" or "The Lost Patrol", but it's pretty tough and has an edge that puts it above most of the cheaply made war films of this time.

The film is also somewhat unique for films of this time because it also tells the story from the North Vietnamese Army perspective, who are shown as not all that different from the US soldiers, both as pawns in a political struggle, but both very savage of pawns at that.

To be clear, this is no "Apocalypse Now" or "Platoon" or even "Hamburger Hill," but don't make the mistake of lumping this in with "Missing in Action" or "Platoon Leader".

It probably falls somewhere along with "We Were Soldiers" which had some very strong points but also some deep flaws.