The Green Berets (1968)

This is a film that was highly criticized by a lot because it seemed almost in favor of the Vietnam War. But, on the other hand, it shows the true danger of what Green Berets and other military members were up against in those swampy jungles of Vietnam

Summary

-Col. Mike Kirby is told to assemble a team of  Green Berets for a mission in South Vietnam that involves building and controlling a camp threating to be overtaken by enemy forces and kidnapping a North Vietnamese general to pump him for information

Cast

-John Wayne: Col. Mike Kirby

-David Janssen: George Beckworth

-Jim Hutton: Sgt. Petersen

-Aldo Ray: Sgt. Muldoon

-Raymond St. Jacques: Sgt. Doc McGee

-Bruce Cabot: Col. Morgan

-Jack Soo: Col. Cai

-George Takei: Capt. Nim

-Patrick Wayne: Lt. Jamison

-Luke Askew: Sgt. Provo

-Edward Faulkner: Capt. McDaniel

-Irene Tsu: Lin

-Craig Jue: Hamchunk

-Mike Henry: Sgt. Kowalski

-Jason Evers: Capt. Coleman

Did You Know?

-John Wayne actually believed that the critics negatively attacking the film helped the box office sales because they were attacking the war itself and not the film

-Actor Aldo Ray was an alcoholic and his problem was so extensive that some of his lines had to be given to other actors

-John Wayne wrote to then president Lyndon B Johnson and asked for military assistance for the film. Jack Valenti told the President "Wayne's politics are wrong, but insofar as Vietnam is concerned, his views are right. If he made the picture he would be saying the things we want said." That earned Wayne the help from the Department of Defense he wanted, and thus made this one of the most controversial movies in all of history

-Jim Hutton was strongly against the Vietnam War. But because of his role in the movie, many thought he shared Wayne's pro-Vietnam views

-At the start of the film, George Takei told John Wayne he did not support the Vietnam War. Wayne told him half of the cast and crew shared Takei's beliefs and that he had hired Takei for his acting abilities, not his political views

-The colonel who was trap shooting with John Wayne and was running the jump school was an actual US paratrooper commander and commandant for the jump school that trains paratroopers

-What inspired John Wayne to make this movie was a trip to Vietnam in June 1966

-The large outpost battle that takes place is loosely based on the Battle of Nam Dong. Two small Vietcong groups attacked a small military outpost in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. This outpost was defended by a combined force of American, Australian and South Vietnamese troops on 7/6/1964. The outpost was successfully defended and the commanding officer, Capt. Roger Donlon, was given the Medal of Honor

-John Wayne wanted to have the song "The Ballad of the Green Berets" by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler over the opening credits. Unfortunately, others who worked on the movie thought it was too corny and old fashioned. So it ended up playing in the end credits

-When the movie came out, critics pointed out that Green Berets were normally not 60 years old

-This was John Wayne's final war film, despite some war scenes being depicted in the 1969 film The Undefeated and the 1970 film Rio Lobo

-Identical to his war reporter character George Beckworth, actor David Janssen was strongly opposed to the Vietnam War. He didn't believe his character would have changed his opinions to be in favor of US involvement in the conflict

-During the time of the Vietnam War, John Wayne was highly critical of teenagers who went to Europe or Canada to dodge the draft. He called them "cowards", "traitors", "Communists"

-All of the Vietnamese characters are played by Japanese actors

-In one scene in the movie, John Wayne can be seen wrapping his rappelling rope through a carabiner the wrong way. Paratroopers call this a "fatal hookup". This would result in an immediate fall once weight was applied

-During the Vietnam War, most colonels were only in their early 30s. John Wayne was 60 and Bruce Cabot, who also played a colonel, was 63

-While John Wayne was being criticized for his age, there could be more criticizing for the other actors. The other actors were considered too old to play soldiers. The average age of a Vietnam War-era solder was only 19

-The house where the North Vietnamese general lived was a Neo-French mansion in Columbus, Georgia. John Wayne's production crew had chosen it because of the type of architecture it featured, because it looked like something that belonged in Vietnam, which was known as the Paris of the East. The house also featured non-native plants. Sadly, the house burned to the ground in the 1990s and was never rebuilt. On a comical note, there is a part where if you stop motion the movie during the scene where Jim Hutton and John Wayne are surveying the mansion, you can look through the plants and see cars passing by on Wynnton Ave and the parking lot of Sara Spano's Fish House, a popular seafood restaurant in Columbus

-When reporter George Beckwith arrived at the camp, he witnessed the defensive measures being used in Vietnam. He witnessed how punji stakes worked. He asked if that is something the Vietcong used. He was told "Yes, but we don't dip them in the same stuff he does". This is a reference to the fact that the Vietcong would create punji stakes and dip them in fecal matter to create infections should someone fall on them. This was a highly sensitive type of situation and no one wanted to know it explicitly

-David Janssen and John Wayne got in to a massive argument on set after Janssen seen Wayne losing his temper on a small child of Asian descent. Janssen left the set, which is something he never did before

-Many actual soldiers serving in Vietnam found the film offensive

-The aerial maneuver that is used to get the kidnapped general away is called the Fulton System. It was also used in the film Thunderball

-Most if not all of the movie was filmed in the southern US, nowhere near Vietnam