Hamburger Hill (1987)
While the Cold War thankfully never resulted in a nuclear exchange or resulted in a Red Dawn style scenario where the superpowers tried to invade each other, it did involve American and Soviet troops engaging in proxy wars across the globe.
Arguably the most famous of these Cold War proxy conflicts was the near-20 year long Vietnam War that raged from 1959 until 1975, with the United States being heavily involved with thousands of American troops being sent to the country and many ultimately not returning.
The legacy of American involvement in the Vietnam War remains controversial to this day, with many divided across the political spectrum as to its merits and whether or not it was even necessary.
The war like many before and after it, also gave rise to many books and films, some of which are truly great works, ranging from Francis Ford Coppola’s nightmarish Apocalypse Now to Oliver Stone’s semi-autobiographical work Platoon, aiming to capture the madness of this controversial conflict.
However, one film that is often unfairly overlooked when discussing the various great Vietnam War films is John Irvin’s Hamburger Hill, a brutal and gruelling film that really people really should consider giving another look at.
Set in May 1969 at the height of American involvement in Vietnam and the men of the 101st Airborne Division are ordered by their commanders to assault a heavily fortified hill designated as Hill 937 from communist Vietnamese forces, despite the hill having little tactical advantage or importance, resulting in a protracted and fierce battle.
The film features a large ensemble cast of actors who while relatively unknown at the time, have since gone on to greater fame, with Dylan McDermott, Steven Weber and Don Cheadle being the most familiar faces of the bunch. All give fine performances, although sadly Cheadle isn’t really given much dialogue, so we don’t really get to witness some of the talents that made him the star he is today.
Courtney B. Vance, who recently won much acclaim for his performance as Johnnie Cochran in American Crime Story, gives probably the best performance of the film as “Doc” the battle-scarred wisecracking medic. Vance manages to alternate between delivering funny, often insightful monologues about the difference as the reasons black and white soldiers are fighting in the war, while also delivering powerful speeches about his frustration over the death of his friend, who despite his repeated insistence that he wasn’t fit enough to fight, was sent into battle regardless. It’s a truly towering performance from a severely underrated actor who is thankfully now getting the praise and attention he deserves.
The film does touch upon the usual Vietnam War tropes that have become so familiar that they have become cliché, with it focusing on the apparent pointlessness of the battle for the hill that the men are fighting, suffering mass amounts of casualties for a titular hill that ultimately has little to no tactical importance.
Yet despite these cliches, the film manages to make the tropes still feel interesting and often quite moving particularly when it touches upon the treatment of the soldiers back in the United States. Particularly in a scene in which Platoon Sergeant Worchester (played by Steven Weber) tells a truly depressing story of his return to America in which he was greeted by anti-war protesters throwing bags of dog faeces at him, with his alienation with his fellow country men motivating him to willingly sign up for another tour of duty, with the battle torn jungles of Vietnam now being the only thing that feels familiar to him.
It’s these quiet moments in which the men simply talk about their feelings on what they hope to get when they return home, their frustration at being away from home, and their sadness when, as in the case of one soldier, the ones they love reject them because of their position as a soldier, that really make the film great. While some might say it’s the usual clichéd “war is hell” talk, I feel that it perfectly fits in with the story that the film is trying to tell, because war is indeed hell.
The second half of the film is essentially one long battle sequence fed to us in, for lack of a better word, instalments as the men repeatedly charge up the titular hill, suffering mass casualties and dealing out massive destruction and death upon their foes, but through various circumstances are repeatedly forced back down to the bottom.
Two particularly frustrating battle scenes see the men almost make it to the top of the hill, only to be foiled in one instance by their own air support machine gunning them down in a horrific instance of friendly fire (an incident that actually occurred), while another rain-soaked battle sees the men practically touch the top, only to slide all the way back down the hill when the rain turns the hill into a unclimbable mountain of mud.
The battle scenes are fierce, gritty and really capture the horrific slog of the battle, with the eventual victory feeling rather hollow and empty, with the now war-ravaged new recruits feeling too exhausted and depressed to celebrate, with the hill blasted into a grey husk of bodies and blasted twigs.
Hamburger Hill is probably one of the most criminally underrated war films of all time, with it expertly capturing the savage dull slog of battle and the humour and humanity of the troops, creating what I consider to be one of the finest films made about the Vietnam War. It’s a fantastic film that I highly recommend to all those fascinated by this controversial conflict.
