"HAMBURGER HILL" (1987)
a film by John Irvin
reviewed by Anna G. McDougald
****1/2 out of *****
More than a decade before Steven Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN asked whether a film could be both "anti war" and "pro-soldier", John Irvin's HAMBURGER HILL proved it could. Lost in the innundation of critical acclaim that greeted Oliver Stone's PLATOON, this excellent film was dismissed as "too militaristic". It's hard to understand exactly why---unless Irvin, in assembling his motley collection of young men who for predictable (and often naive) reasons "chose to show up" for the Vietnam debacle, ---has refused to present us with the stone killer, drug-stoked psycho, and ruthless opportunist who have become to Vietnam war epics what "the Polack, the Hillbilly and the Kid from Brooklyn" became to WWII movies.
HAMBURGER HILL, based on a true story, is not an easy film to watch. There is a scene that will have graying anti-war activists squirming in their seats, or moved to genuine tears. And the climactic final assault on the "Hill" in question is visually confusing. Gristly realities are presented in brief flashes, as if the brain dared not acknowledged what it had encountered. And in the mud and smoke officer and enlistee, veteran and "newbie", black soldier and white, become almost indistinguishable from each other, as they do in the chaos of actual combat. The acting throughout is solid with an absolutely stellar performance rendered by Courtney B. Vance as Doc--in a role that will have many flatly disbelieving that this is same actor they cheered as "Seaman Jones" in McTiernan's RED OCTOBER.
If you've seen PRIVATE RYAN, you owe it to yourself to see HAMBURGER HILL--if only to realise that all the valor and horror of Spielberg's vision was as present in the Ashau Valley as it was at Omaha Beach.
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