The Green Berets (1968, John Wayne, David Janssen, Jim Hutton) – Classic Movie Review 6998

Inspired to make The Green Berets as a response to the growing anti-Vietnam War movement in the US, John Wayne delivers an offensive and inept warmongering, reactionary propaganda movie about two US army groups trained and sent off to fight in Vietnam.

The 60-year-old Wayne plays the gung-ho Colonel Mike Kirby, the regiment commander battling the Viet Cong, and trying to seize an emeny general, while lecturing a hardnosed war correspondent reporter George Beckworth (David Janssen) on the virtues of right-wing politics and US involvement in Vietnam. Of course, George Beckworth starts out against the Vietnam War and swings round to Wayne’s way of thinking. Colonel Mike Kirby is based on the real-life Lauri Törni, a Finnish army captain who fought in the Second World War.

The Green Berets is as botched as a war action drama as it is as a forum for politics. It was released soon after the Tet Offensive and the My Lai Massacre, when Wayne believed the US could still win the war. Would it have been found generally acceptable though if it had been set in the West, or in Korea or in the Pacific? The screenplay by James Lee Barrett uses little of the source novel by Robin Moore.

Wayne got enough help from the US Defense Department to make the film, which became one of the most controversial movies of all time. It stirred up a wave of extremely negative critical reactions, though depressingly it was one of Warner Bros’ two big money-earners of the year, but then the other was the humane Rachel, Rachel. The Green Berets was the 13th highest grossing movie of 1968, with grosses of $21,707,027, on a budget of $7,000,000.

Wayne believed the negative reaction helped the film’s box-office and felt critics were attacking the Vietnam war rather than his film. Wayne said: ‘The left-wingers are shredding my flesh, but like Liberace, we’re bawling all the way to the bank.’ Hawkish producer Jack L Warner remained publicly proud of the film despite the poor reviews.

Also in the cast are Jim Hutton, Aldo Ray, Raymond St Jacques, Jack Soo, Bruce Cabot, Patrick Wayne, Irene Tsu, Jason Evers, Luke Askew, Mike Henry, George Takei, Edward Faulkner, Craig Jue, Chuck Robertson, Richard Pryor, William Olds, Chuck Ball, Vincent Cadiente and William Shannon.

The Green Berets is directed by John Wayne and Ray Kellogg, runs 141 minutes, is a Batjac production, a Warner Bros/ Seven Arts release,  is written by James Lee Barrett, based on a novel by Robin Moore, is shot in Technicolor by Winton C Hoch, is produced by Michael Wayne, and scored by Miklós Rózsa.

George Takei, who missed making nine episodes of Star Trek (1966) to work on this movie, told Wayne he was strongly against the Vietnam War. Wayne replied that so was half of the cast and crew, and that he hired Takei for his acting ability and not for his political views. But later Takei said he strongly disagreed with the film’s pro-war message and felt the movie was very bad.

Jim Hutton was also against the Vietnam War. Elmer Bernstein turned down scoring the film as he didn’t feel it sat well with his politics. When Miklós Rózsa was then offered the job, he replied: ‘I don’t do Westerns.’ He was told: ‘It’s not a Western, it’s an Eastern.’ Sheree North turned down the role of Wayne’s wife because of the movie’s politics. Vera Miles took over but her scenes were cut by the studio. Like his film character of George Beckworth, David Janssen was against the Vietnam War.

Universal pulled out of making The Green Berets because of concerns about the film, so it was made by Warner Bros. But, after Wayne’s expensive flop The Alamo (1960), Warner Bros only agreed to let him make the film if he agreed to co-direct with a more experienced director, and Wayne chose Ray Kellogg.

The defensive battle in the second half of the movie is loosely based on the Battle of Nam Dong, in which a small outpost was defended against two Viet Cong battalions by American, Australian and South Vietnamese troops on 6 July 1964.

The Vietnamese characters are played by Japanese actors.

Much of the film was shot in 1967 at Fort Benning, Georgia, and there was almost continuous rain. It was also filmed at Fort McClellen, Alabama, and at Stage 25, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, California.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6998

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