At the gas works

Rating: 7/10 (25 July 2006)

I enjoyed this the most of the Vietnam films I've seen. It's a weird film in many ways. Many have commented on the fact that it is actually two films rather flimsily stuck together. The first half, on the training, is rightly famous as the most extreme of its genre, but let's face it, it was not exactly a new idea, even in the mid 80s. An Officer and a Gentleman had visited the area not many years before. The way that that sequence ends is overdone in my view. It's certainly not subtle.
What makes FMJ better than other films, such as Platoon or Hamburger Hill, is that it has some humanity about it. The end sequence with the sniper is touching. In contrast, Platoon goes so far in showing that War Is Hell and Life Is Meaningless that one starts to lose interest. Meaninglessness is actually uninteresting.
It shares with other Vietnam films the problem that we don't really get to know the characters enough and cannot sufficiently follow or empathise with their motivation and actions. Matthew Modine's character can be summarised as 'nice guy with a sense of irony' and that's about all. This is not really enough to carry the film.
For a British viewer like me, it's hard to forget that this was almost entirely filmed in England, a country not exactly famous for its similarity in geography and climate to the jungles of S.E. Asia. The use of the old Beckton gasworks as Hue City is weird. It's very obvious that no one is sweating and no one is fighting off mosquitoes, etc. They were probably wishing they could wear overcoats at the time!