THE SIEGE OF FIREBASE GLORIA Movie Review
1989 Brian Trenchard-Smith
This is the film that John Wayne's The Green Berets might have been. When Wayne pitched the idea to President Lyndon Johnson, he said that he wanted to make The Alamo set in Vietnam, and to tell an honest story about the violent tactics used by both sides. Not surprisingly, the Army demanded that its role be sanitized before permission would be given to use bases and equipment, and the result is one of Hollywood's most notorious turkeys. Twenty years later, other filmmakers stuck to that basic idea, though they chose another great war film as their model: Zulu.
In January 1968, Sgt. Hafner (R. Lee Ermey) and Cpl. DiNardo (Wings Hauser) lead a Marine patrol to the village of An Loc. They've been told that the Vietcong have announced a cease-fire and so they do not expect the horrors they encounter. Without giving away important plot details, they make their way to Firebase Gloria, a remote outpost commanded by a madman (John Calvin). Hafner takes charge and, though he cannot persuade Saigon that a major attack is imminent, he does his best to shape the men up and to fortify the defenses. His opposite number is Cao Van (Robert Arevalo), commander of a Vietcong regiment that's taking part in the Tet Offensive. He has political problems to deal with, too. The North Vietnamese Army wants results. Though Cao Van has superior numbers, the Marines hold the high ground. The battle will not be easy for either side.
Inevitably, writers William Nagle and Tony Johnston and director Brian Trenchard-Smith fall back on some cliches. More often though, the darkly comic dialogue (see quotes) gives a new perspective to the war and the men who fought it. Trenchard-Smith's direction is fine in the big battle scenes, moving easily from hand-to-hand action on the ground to helicopter attacks. In the end, though, the actual fighting is less important than the film's attempts to present both sides fairly. As Hafner observes, “We were killing Charlie wholesale, but he didn't seem to care. Guess we'd do the same if Charlie occupied South Carolina.”
Obviously, this is not a film about good guys and bad guys. There's more than enough guilt and horror and madness to go around, and the sight of American soldiers executing wounded Vietnamese in the field is still chilling. The film also succeeds on a visceral level; the battle scenes are gripping and exciting, and they end with a landscape filled with the dead and dying. Though Ermey occasionally appears uneasy in the lead, he's a natural with the physical action. More importantly, his voice can handle the subtle demands of voice-over narration, without resorting to the all-out verbal assault he delivered in Full Metal Jacket.
Though his role isn't nearly as large, Robert Arevalo manages to give the enemy a human face. He's presented here as a warrior who's fighting for his country and his people, against a well-equipped but outnumbered foe. That refusal to take a political point of view gives the film its unusual depth. It also heightens the tension of the battle scenes because it's so difficult for the viewer to take a convenient side. Our sympathies are manipulated in some thoughtful ways. Again, the similarities to Zulu are telling.
Firebreathers at both ends of the political spectrum will not find much comfort here. For everyone else, the film reveals a pivotal moment in history with intelligence, drama, courage, insight, and in the end, sadness. Despite limited theatrical release, The Siege of Firebase Gloria has developed a solid following on video. Any war movie fan who has missed it is in for a treat.
Cast: Wings Hauser (Cpl. “Nard” DiNardo), R. Lee Ermey (Sgt. Hafner), Mark Neely (Murphy), Gary Hershberger (Bugs Moran), Clyde Jones (Coates), Margi Gerard (Capt. Flanagan), Richard Kuhlman (Ghost), David Anderson (Co-pilot), Robert Arevalo (Cao Van), John Calvin (C.O. Williams), Albert “Poppy” Popwell (Jones); Written by: Tony Johnston, William Nagle; Cinematography by: Joe Batac; Music by: Paul Schutze. Producer: Fries Entertainment. Running Time: 95 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta, LV.