Hamburger Hill **** (1987, Anthony Barrile, Michael Boatman, Don Cheadle) – Classic Movie Review 9605

British director John Irvin’s 1987 Hamburger Hill is a robust and vigorous Vietnam film that unfairly got rather lost in a year when they were in vogue.

It is not as special as Full Metal Jacket nor as prize-laden as Platoon, but there is a lot of raw power in the brutal action sequences and realistic telling detail in Jim Carabatsos’s script based on a real story about a US airborne division doing battle for Hamburger Hill.

A squad of 14 US Army soldiers of B Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division battle the North Vietnamese for the fortified Hill 937 in the A Shau Valley of Vietnam from 11 to 20 May 1969. The battle was later named Hamburger Hill because enemy bullets turned US troops into hamburger meat.

Among the cast are Anthony Barrile, Michael Boatman, Don Cheadle, Michael Dolan, Don James, Dylan McDermott, Courtney B Vance, Steven Weber, Tim Quill, Tegan West, Tommy Swerdlow, Daniel O’Shea, Harry O’Reilly and Michael A Nickles.

Irvin directed the classic TV mini-series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (seven episodes) and had filmed a documentary in Vietnam during the war.

Hamburger Hill is directed by John Irvin, runs 110 minutes, is made by RKO Pictures, is released by Paramount Pictures (1987) (US), is written by Jim Carabatsos, is shot by Peter MacDonald, is produced by Marcia Nasatir, Jim Carabatsos and Larry de Waay, is scored by Philip Glass and is designed by Austen Spriggs.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9605

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