While there are lots of films depicting aspects of the Vietnam War, not all of them are based on actual events. Here are five that are…
1. The Killing Fields (1984)
Director: Roland Joffé
Screenwriter: Bruce Robinson
Based on: ‘The Death and Life of Dith Pran: A Story of Cambodia’ by Sydney Schanberg The New York Times Magazine (20 January 1980) – there’s also an ebook version of the article available to purchase.
Synopsis: A New York Times reporter covering the civil war in Cambodia (1967-75) strikes up a friendship with a local journalist, whose life is threatened by the Khmer Rouge when he becomes trapped in the country.
What makes it great? The film adopts an effective realist style that reveals the atrocities taking place in Cambodia, while focussing on the strong personal friendship at its centre. It’s not strictly a ‘Vietnam War film’ but does centre on a conflict that was a product of the war. It is a multiple Oscar-winner, including Best Supporting Actor for Haing S. Ngor, who actually lived through his country’s civil war. Read more in our full analysis.
2. Hamburger Hill (1987)
Director: John Irvin
Screenwriter: Jim Carabatsos
Synopsis: A squad of 14 US army soldiers becomes embroiled in a bloody 10-day battle to take Hill 937 from the North Vietnamese.
What makes it great? One of the lesser-known of the Vietnam War films, Hamburger Hill is a particularly strong example of how cinema can take audiences into the heart of the action to show men who are just trying to survive in the face of a relentless enemy.
3. Casualties of War (1989)
Director: Brian De Palma
Screenwriter: David Rabe
Based on: Material first published in the New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1969/10/18/casualties-of-war. It was also turned into a non-fiction book, Casualties of War by Daniel Lang (2014).
Synopsis: A young soldier is ostracised from his squad when he refuses to be complicit in the kidnap, rape and murder of a young Vietnamese girl. He then faces a fight to bring his fellow soldiers to justice.
What makes it great? This film offers a look at how war can lead men into abhorrent, criminal behaviour and also at how the Vietnamese were treated by some of the US soldiers. More than that, the film is a stark reminder of the realities of war.
4. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Director: Oliver Stone
Screenwriters: Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic
Based on: The autobiographical book, Born on the Fourth of July, by Ron Kovic (1976).
Screenplay:
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/bornontheforthofjuly1.pdf
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/bornontheforthofjuly2.pdf
Synopsis: An enthusiastic and idealistic young Marine from small town USA becomes a passionate anti-war campaigner after he is severely wounded in Vietnam and endures dehumanising treatment at a veterans’ hospital.
What makes it great? The true story of Ron Kovic provides the source material for possibly the most affecting of all the Vietnam films. The scenes in the hospital are especially harrowing, as the young athletic man is reduced to a shell of his former self, before finding new meaning in his life as an outspoken advocate for human rights and for ending the war. The film won two Oscars, including for Stone’s direction. This is the second in the director’s Vietnam trilogy (which includes Platoon (1986) and Heaven & Earth (1993)).
5. We Were Soldiers (2002)
Director: Randall Wallace
Screenwriter: Randall Wallace
Based on: The non-fiction book, We Were Soldiers Once…and Young: Ia Drang – the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam, by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway (1992)
Synopsis: Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore leads his battalion into the US’ first major battle of the Vietnam War, in the Ia Drang valley.
What makes it great? While the film contains many bloody, visceral scenes of battle, the story is balanced out by showing the impact on the soldiers’ families back home and also on the Vietnamese, who are portrayed as more than just a faceless enemy.