almost a full decade before steven spielberg 's saving private ryan asked whether a film could be both " anti war " and " pro - soldier " , john irvin 's hamburger hill proved it could .
lost in the inundation of critical acclaim that greeted oliver stone 's platoon , this excellent film was dismissed as " too militaristic " .
it 's hard to understand exactly why --- unless irvin , in assembling his motley collection of young men who for predictable ( and often naive ) reasons " chose to show up " for the vietnam debacle , ---has refused to present us with the stone killer , drug - stoked psycho and ruthless opportunist who have become to vietnam war epics what " the polack , the hillbilly and the kid from brooklyn " became to wwii movies .
hamburger hill , based on a true story , is not an easy film to watch .
there is a scene that will have graying anti - war activists squirming in their seats , or moved to genuine tears .
and the climactic final assault on the " hill " in question is visually confusing .
gristly realities are presented in brief flashes , as if the brain dared not acknowledged what it had encountered .
and in the mud and smoke officer and enlistee , veteran and " newbie " , black soldier and white , become almost indistinguishable from each other , as they do in the chaos of actual combat .
the acting throughout is solid with an absolutely stellar performance rendered by courtney b . vance as doc -- in a role that will have many flatly disbelieving that this is same actor they cheered as " seaman jones " in mctiernan 's red october .
if you 've seen private ryan , you owe it to yourself to see hamburger hill -- if only to determine that the all the valour and horror of spielberg 's vision was as present in the ashau valley as it was at omaha beach .
the acting throughout is solid with an absolutely stellar performance this excellent film