7 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? To relive it on screen, or close to it, sent shivers up my spine and brought a tear or two.
The DVD from Amazon is manufactured on demand - ripped from a VHS. Do me a favour!!! Throw in a wiseass chopper pilot who feasts off of death dealing nihilism . As a result, over the years I have read almost every combat account/Oral History and a few novels about that particular war and the experience of being in it. Major is played off of Wings Hauser's kill-at-all-costs DiNardo. A real attention-grabber is that it's directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith ("The Man from Hong Kong" and "Dead-End Drive In") and R. Lee Emery and Wings Hauser would star.
21 out of 23 found this helpful.
Well now, c'mon and step right up fellas and take a close look at this gem. It features R. Lee Ermey (who seems born to portray all-American soldiers) as a right-wing commander, and Wings Hauser, who plays a relentless but tender-hearted commando. (It joins WE WERE SOLDIERS and THE ODD ANGRY SHOT at the top.) In 1967 to 1968, when the Tet Offensive started, I was in Air Rescue and our chopper was shot down at a fire base south of Da Nang,. My overall rating would be a very solid 7 out of 10. We were stranded for a long time, and were hit by a large superior force of V.C. Was this review helpful?
It's low budget by Hollywood standards and lacks a Hollywood pedigree, but it really rattles the 'nads and jolts the head out of any daydream you might have fallen into. If you've never heard of this movie before, you're in good company. I spent 16 months over there and was on many Firebases, and was overrun many times and this film over the ensuing years has caused me many flashbacks, but it's so great, I can't help re-watching it again and again - I just don't plan on getting much sleep that night. Was this review helpful? Was this review helpful? This a good movie, made better by R Lee. Was this review helpful? The Siege of Firebase Gloria is a rare movie in that it manages to show a conflict from both points of view (much like another war movie classic, The Longest Day.) Was this review helpful? The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1989) External Reviews. The plot follows Sgt Hatner (Emery) and Cpl Di Nardo (Hauser), as they lead their platoon to a remote US marine Corp firebase Gloria, where they hold up against the advancing Viet Cong with very little support than to dig in.
"The Siege of Firebase Gloria" is a really graphic flick about a squirmish at an American base called Firebase Gloria in Vietnam. Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password.
Forget what the nay-sayers write about this movie. Was this review helpful? The scene where Ermey parades around with the heads of two GI's who were taken by surprise and murdered in the darkness at their post is the blackest comedy . Decent attempts were made at developing some of the characters, an attempt was also made to show that the Vietnamese weren't just all `bad' and the Americans weren't just all `good', the combat scenes were well executed (despite the occasionally dodgy incidental music) and pulled no punches, and on the whole it avoids degenetrating into the chest-beating, gung-ho nonsense of films like "The Green Berets" and others (except perhaps for when the helicopter pilots are whooping and hollering like sadistic schoolboys as they mow down scores of "dinks" with their machine guns and rockets). Fortunately, the editor of VideoHound's book on war movies had heard of it. In fact it hardly gets a mention at all and is overshadowed by films such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and others.
This film is so true to the mark that for almost 2 hours I literally forgot where I was and thought I was THERE with those f*****' jarheads (God love 'em!) While the director takes certain liberties with details (guns are fired for too long without reloading, for example) the action sweeps you up so that unless you are really looking for it, you won't notice it, and I am curious to know who actually counts rounds in combat. This film pulls no punches, showing combat for what it is: a slaughter.