When this film began, I wondered if it was originally intended for theatrical release. While I know it was a made for television picture for "The ABC Movie of the Week", the opening titles sure looked like a non-television film...and most of these made for TV films are only about 75 minutes while this one clocks in at 90. Who knows...? The script for "Tribes" won a Prime Time Emmy Award and was written by Tracy Keenan Wynn, Keenan Wynn's son. He also wrote scripts for some high profile projects like "The Longest Yard" and "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman". The film follows a group of young Marine draftees through boot camp with their tough Drill Instructor, Sgt. Drake (Darren McGavin). Of all the guys in the platoon, the one that seems to rub Drake wrong the most often is Pvt. Adrian (Jan-Michael Vincent), as Adrian is a hippie---with long hair and sandals. However, in many ways Adrian is a great recruit...but he doesn't quite fit in all the time (particularly when it comes to the rifle range). He uses meditation to excel at physical training and soon is teaching it to the rest of the recruits...much to the annoyance and confusion of Drake! This movie focuses on this relationship between Adrian and Drake...and you wonder throughout which one will win this battle of wills. Oddly, however, towards the end of the picture, Drake takes on a rather paternal attitude towards Adrian...and another Drill Instructor doesn't like this.Not surprisingly, McGavin is exceptional...and the script one that keeps your interest throughout. It's also a wonderful time capsule for the period...a look back into America circa 1970. The negative, and it didn't bother me, is the ending...which I am pretty sure left many viewers disappointed at its vagueness. Still, well worth seeing.By the way, I wonder where this film is supposed to take place. After all, you see Adrian walking along the beach...and you assume it's perhaps in San Diego (and this IS where it was filmed). But in a scene with the Chaplain, he and Drake talk about going to the Snake River to do some fishing on their day off (Sunday)...and the Snake River is rather far from the coast--mostly running in Wyoming and Idaho but also into Southwest Washington. This would be about a 19 hour drive!

I was eight years old, when this film was released. I didn't see it then in 1970, however I saw in on a cable channel in 1990. Jan MIchael Vincient and Darrin McGavin were from two different worlds. Darrin a man of war, who killed men. Jan a man of peace and love, the hippie way of life. I didn't see very many hippies, during my childhood. Jimmy Carter allowed the hippies, who fled to Canada, to avoid the draft, to come back to the United States. How dare they! They didn't want to fight for their country. I had to register with the selective service prior after graduating high school, in the event of war. I liked this movie. If you saw The DI with Jack Webb aka Sgt. Joe Friday, he is lot like Darrin McGavin a tough Marine Drill Sergeant. He had a nonconformist played by Don Dubbins. He wanted out of the marines the same as Jan. Don even slapped a sand flea, which caused the whole platoon to suffer a punishment. Darrin said when Jan was dreaming about making love to his girl friend. If Shirley daydreams we will all take the wrap. While holding those weights, during drill, he was in another world. The other recruits wondered how he did it. The Sgt. got angry when his men were chanting and following Jan's way of life. Well that sums it up.

I had the fortunate luck to see this on a 1989 Saturday afternoon showing on Phoenix's,then,independent station KPHO channel 5 (now a CBS affiliate.) I had read the brief description in TV Guide and decided to give it a look. Being that movies shown this way then,were always scratchy faded and the sound somewhat muffled,it still didn't take anything away from this (for 1970) daring storyline. Jan Michael's character is the ultimate anti-war,peace loving '60s hippie who'd like to be anywhere but in the military. He shows it by doing all he can to prove he's not soldier material. Jan should have stayed with movies and skipped doing a TV series,he's too good for that!Earl Holliman (miles away from his co-starring role in "Police Woman"),is a great drill Sgt. who is at his wits end in trying to get this young man to "conform" to a military role. In one scene he is finally driven to bend down to Jan Michael and whisper,"You have to shoot etc..." in a way like an understanding father to his son.It's often said of TV movies that they are badly acted,directed and come off with less depth than a theatrical release. "Tribes" is one of the handful of 1970's TV Movies that escapes that description,if these two main leads didn't win an Emmy,then that's too bad,their performances sure seem Emmy caliber. Buy it on DVD?...You bet I would! (END)

I am usually not a fan of war films or war-themed films, but this one was reely (I meant the spelling) good. It was a fine character study of opposites, with Darren McGavin and Jan-Michael Vincent in stand-out performances. One day I have to try the meditation tricks that Vincent's character uses to mentally take himself away from the unpleasantries he had to deal with at the boot camp.On the note of the cast, can someone tell me where is Bud Cort in this film? He's listed as a 'draftee nerd,' but I don't see him. I am wondering if he has been mistaken for Danny Goldman, who was in a lot of Bud's early films ("M*A*S*H" and "The Strawberry Statement" come to mind), and if you didn't look well enough, could have been mistaken for him. (I made that mistake regarding one dramatic scene that takes place in the men's room at the barracks. I had to watch it twice to correct myself that it wasn't Bud Cort).