Our Forgotten Mini-War of 1983

Rating: 9/10 (4 September 2007)

The Granada Incursion is recalled like an afterthought today. If people recall any military affairs of the Reagan White House they most likely recall the Iran - Contra Affair (and it's star turn by Col. Oliver North) or the tragedy of the Marine Barracks suicide bomb in Lebanon. Granada was a brief event - almost a stunt. But it did bring back a modicum of respect to the military, even if there were some snickering about the rescue of vacationers by the armed forces (it was the rescuing of American students, by the way, at a Granadian medical school). After the Vietnam War, the U.S. was shying away from large scale troop commitments and conflicts for awhile. But in Gerald Ford's administration we had a bloody victory recapturing the "Mayaguez" from Vietnamese sailors, and in Jimmy Carter's we had the botched rescue attempt in 1980 to get the Iranian Hostages home. Granada was clearly better handled than those two events.
There is some irony in Granada. The events actually put the Reagan Administration into a position of avenging a man who openly hated it. President Bishop of Granada was a Communist and wished to turn Granada leftward. He openly condemned Reagan. Unfortunately there are always fissures even in totalitarian movements. Bishop was moving too slowly for some others. He was killed in a coup by elements of the Granadian military who Castro was supporting. The fact that Americans were in Granada drew us into the matter. The Americans were rescued, and by our efforts Castro's allies were defeated (and the murdered Bishop avenged!).
HEARTBREAK RIDGE was made three years later (1986), directed by it's star Clint Eastwood. While not among his greatest films which were to come in the next twenty years, it is a good production. He is a tough Marine who dislikes authority. He has risen to the rank of Sergeant, particularly through his war record (it turns out that he was one of three survivors of a grueling war fight along a small ridge - hence the title - that earned him a Congressional Medal of Honor). But his career has never gone as far as it can, and he is facing the end of it either in retirement or in court-martial due to his frequent drunken escapades or scrapes with the brass. He is given his last chance shaping up the worst bunch of misfits in the Marines base.
At the same time Eastwood has married and divorced former military gal Marsha Mason. At first the marriage seemed working but Mason got fed up that whenever Eastwood had an opportunity to retire on his first rate combat record he resigned up to go to another action or war. They have been divorced for some time, and as he is approaching the end of the military road Eastwood wants to reunite with Mason. But she is hard to his advances (although she is apparently interested enough in his welfare). The culmination is when they almost seemed reconciled, but she sees through his "soft approach" ("You flanked me!", she accuses him), and she throws him out. Later, after a night in the local jail for drunkenness she bails him out and tells him they can't continue unless he respects her terms.
The misfits in Eastwood's platoon include Mario Van Peebles, Tom Villard, Ramon Franco, and Mike Gomez. We watch as here Eastwood manages to bring these different misfits (Van Peebles thinks he's a potential musical entertainer) together. This despite the heated rivalry of another platoon, whose sergeant outranks Eastwood. It culminates in a victory of Eastwood and his men over the others in a war maneuver game (including a slug match Eastwood has with the Sergeant - Major). Finally comes the actual combat in Granada, and how Eastwood and his men acquit themselves proudly in it.
Besides the others, note Moses Gunn as a sycophantic sergeant who is in the command of Eastwood's rival. He's a real piece of work.
The film actually works. This is ironic as Granada is (in retrospect) a slight affair of our history - a footnote. The one film of note made of it was a worthy and watchable war film. In comparison the one movie (made in it's period) about Vietnam (THE GREEN BERETS) was a wash-out. One had to wait until after Vietnam was receding into historic nightmare that films like THE DEERHUNTER and APOCALYPSE NOW (and even FORREST GUMP) came along to show what was that war like. For all that made Granada forgettable to Americans, HEARTBREAK RIDGE manages to capture the story quite well.