What can you say about a war that Franz Kafka might have arranged? It's said
in The Boys In Company C. The story is based on the journal of a GI played by
James Canning and his four buddies who went through basic training and served as Marines. The other four are Stan Shaw, Andrew Stevens, Craig Wasson, and Michael Lembeck. The five all come from completely different
backgrounds and those backgrounds play into how they come to feel as they
feel about our military intervention. Not so surprising eventually they all
arrive at the same conclusions.
Vietnam was a whole lot like how we dealt with China except that we weren't dumb enough to get into a land war there on behalf of Chiang Kai-shek. No we went in by increments and by 1967-68 when the action of this film takes place we had no clear military objective. Our allies whom we fought for were as corrupt a bunch as you could have. Stan Shaw from the Chicago ghetto thought he was street smart and cynical and thought he'd make some crooked drug money while there. The corruption played out with a scene with South Vietnamese general leaves him appalled.
There were sure enough real casualties among civilians in Vietnam. But I remember the obsession and reporting of body counts in the news back in the day. This was how we measured success and those on the ground gave them what they asked for. Scott Hylands has a great part as a captain who has really bought into the hype about that.
Hylands has another obsession, soccer. He sees a soccer game as a metaphor for war and pretty soon his men pretend to buy into it including our five protagonists. But we even have corruption there as the five soon discover.
All five meet different fates in the end and as the postscript explains. Not as well known as Casualties Of War or Platoon. Still The Boys In Company C can certainly lay claim to being THE Vietnam War film.
Vietnam was a whole lot like how we dealt with China except that we weren't dumb enough to get into a land war there on behalf of Chiang Kai-shek. No we went in by increments and by 1967-68 when the action of this film takes place we had no clear military objective. Our allies whom we fought for were as corrupt a bunch as you could have. Stan Shaw from the Chicago ghetto thought he was street smart and cynical and thought he'd make some crooked drug money while there. The corruption played out with a scene with South Vietnamese general leaves him appalled.
There were sure enough real casualties among civilians in Vietnam. But I remember the obsession and reporting of body counts in the news back in the day. This was how we measured success and those on the ground gave them what they asked for. Scott Hylands has a great part as a captain who has really bought into the hype about that.
Hylands has another obsession, soccer. He sees a soccer game as a metaphor for war and pretty soon his men pretend to buy into it including our five protagonists. But we even have corruption there as the five soon discover.
All five meet different fates in the end and as the postscript explains. Not as well known as Casualties Of War or Platoon. Still The Boys In Company C can certainly lay claim to being THE Vietnam War film.