I have no issue with this being a movie in support of the US effort in Vietnam. It's too bad it's just not that good a movie - largely because John Wayne tried to graft a typical 'rollicking' John Wayne adventure replete with 'colorful' characters that like Chekov's gun don't really get used once the story gets "going" but neglected the actual task of... storytelling.First part of the movie consists of assembling the stock characters - I mean troops. Each is supposed to have a special talent essential for the mission - there's even a 'scrounger'. When we finally get to 'nam we get the local color in the form of 'Hamchuk' and his dog. The dog is the only character, once introduced, to get used again. Alas, it's for bringing up the feels.Now, I haven't seen this in a while but I bet there was a knock down, drag out bar fight in this somewhere - you can't get your Rollicking Content Certificate without one. What there wasn't much of - at least till the third act - was actual Special Forces being special. I mean, come the f*** on, two thirds of the movie is spent setting up and defending their jungle tree-house - I mean base.They finally show a Special Forces 'trick' in the way they evacuate some dude by shooting a loop of rope up to a plane dragging a hook. Then they ruin it with some other dude - the token Black Guy - getting splatted against a cartoon mat of bamboo spikes. Wile E Coyote died a little inside on account of that.Real people had to suffer from that government and the war that put that government into power. No need to suffer sitting through this lackluster motion picture...

since 1939, we can count bad John Wayne movies on one hand..maybe. here is a well put together, well intentioned but hopelessly misguided project.Wayne's patriotism shines through and that means a lot. but it appears no one was on hand to say, you know, Duke, this is gonna be a hit but you will never convince anyone that this War is necessary. Japan and France gave up with Vietnam and the CIA pushed for us to take over. The domino theory is just a theory. and now people are getting fed up.Wayne might have knocked him down...but at least the word would have gotten out, there *was* some thought behind THE GREEN BERETS, not just hawks in flight.particularly embarrassing scene: David Jansen vociferously explaining to a Lefty how recovered Vietcong weapons came from Russia. The script does not include any discussion about how USA escalation made that necessary! yes, the War was the first to be serialized, shall we say....every night we learned the latest body count. and Bob Hope, Georgie Jessel, and John Wayne called the reporters "Commeez".ground troops kept busy for four more years.

THAT THE Vietnam WAR era served to ignite a sort of National metamorphosis in the country is one fact about that period in our history that is undebatable. Whatever position one embraces In the political spectrum, all agree on this. The discussion quickly livens up when it comes to matters of who, what, when and why are interjected into the debate.THE STORY FOLLOWS closely the tenets that are expounded in the original story by Robin Moore. In short, war is Hell and the United States Armed Forces have been put into harms way with the best of intentions. With that, we are reminded that, as so eloquently worded in that old proverb; "The Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions!"AS FOR THE film, It manages to tends to balance its elements very well. The dramatic, dialog laden scenes, that are so necessary in moving the story, are countered by the proper number of battle scenes to maintain its status as a war & action movie.THERE HAVE BEEN critics who dismiss THE GREEN BERETS as being a sort of cultural anachronism; comparing it to THE SANDS OF IWO GIMA. Our positions that all of our service men serve us and without our Armed Forces, we wouldn't have the freedom to even write our amateur reviews for IMDb.com. (This last observation, we hope and pray, will be realized by the present Administration in Washington; before it's too late. Can you say "Vladimir Putin?")PERHAPS THE TRUE culprit in this controversy is the Lyndon Johnson Administration. LBJ, himself, had made a statement that, "I don't want to have an outhouse bombed without my approval!"* Added to that, Ddfense Secretary Robert McNamara's habit of micro-managing everything and it is a small wonder that the conflict, in spite of what was one of the greatest military build-ups in history, lasted as long as it did.IN LATER YEARS, after the conflict was over, we heard a discussion on the radio (on the G. Gordon Liddy Show, to be exact). It featured some former military big wigs, who agreed that the War could have been won by taking out 27 military targets. It is food for thought, whether or not this bit of the hypothetical is agreeable to you.AT AROUND THIS same time, a daily and Sunday Comic Strip spin off appeared. TALES OF THE GREEN BERET was scripted by Ronbin Moore and illustrated by comics' living legend, Joe Kubert.PERHAPS ONE TRAGEDY that was a by product of that period of time is that attitude and treatment of the Vietnam Veterans. They were always being portrayed in motion pictures as psychotic killers or worse. And it took what, about 20 years or so for us to have "Welcome Home Parades" for them.

Proaganda films are always easy to criticize - more pose tan realism, more pathos than catharsis, more naiveté than pain. Well, not always like that. The Green Berets is not Platoon, or We Were Soldiers, and surely, not Apocalypse Now. I agree on that. But this movie is not as bad as it was described by oh so many critics. John Wayne is one of my all-time favorites, and here he is not at his best, but still he does a decent job. His Col. Kirby is a good soldier, a brave warrior, an honest man and a loving heart. He is no a killing machine, surely. His character is not in fact the main moment, which is good, the movie speaks more about other Berets and rightly so. I agree, here are many bad examples of real right-wing propaganda here, yes, and Viet Kong is shown in deep black color scheme, while South Viet Nam is almost angelic in depiction. Some exaggerations are obvious, and some bias is clear, too. But then, all the cast did a good job, and despite naive video effects, the battle scenes are very impressive. In their sheer brutality. This movie is a curious curio of that age, a certain great instance of pro-war sentiment. Must be watched with a grain of salt, but still can be very deep and tragic.