The Green Berets (1968)

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General		Extras
Category	War	Biographies-Cast-John Wayne & David Janssen
Rating
Year Of Production	1968
Running Time	136:19
RSDL / Flipper	FLIPPER (72:48)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	John Wayne Ray Kellogg
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	John Wayne David Janssen Jim Hutton Aldo Ray Raymond St. Jacques Bruce Cabot Jack Soo George Takei Patrick Wayne
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Miklos Rosza

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Adapted by James Lee Barrett from the novel by Robin Moore, it is directed by John Wayne and Ray Kellogg. The Green Berets takes us on a sugar-coated ride of Americans winning the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people (and the war). Heavy doses of chest thumping and anti-communistic rhetoric abound. Our heroes die heroically, selflessly saving the lives of the downtrodden South Vietnamese. Wounds are depicted by blotches of red paint and the body count would put any Rambo movie to shame.

    The movie is basically in two parts. The first is the defense of Camp A107 located deep in the heart of Viet Cong territory, the second an infiltration mission to capture an NVA general. Neither really has much to do with the other.

    The movie open at Fort Benning, where Green Berets are 'educating' a group of everyday Americans as to their capabilities. In the meantime, Colonel Mike Kirby (John Wayne) is putting together his troops. They include Jim Hutton as Sgt Peterson, aka the "scrounger", Aldo Ray as Sgt Muldoon, the no-nonsense non-com with a heart of gold and Luke Askew as Sgt Provo (who name is supposed to provide a verbal running gag). The 'fly' in the ointment is provided by George Beckworth (David Janssen) a cynical 'liberal' journalist who questions America's involvement but is a true 'hawk' by movie's end.

    After gathering the troops, we move to Vietnam and Camp A107, where we meet the redoubtable Captain Nim played by George Takei (Star Trek TOS) and Hamchunk, the resident orphan (Craig Jue) to round out our cast. From here on in the plot settles into a definite "Commie bad, American good" bent. We see kindly South Vietnamese villagers bringing their wounded in for treatment, persuaded by leaflets dropped from planes, we are treated to a  reconnaissance mission 'discovering' the horrors inflicted on the friendly villages by the evil Viet Cong (obviously My Lai had not raised its ugly head at this time) and we are treated to a pitched battle for Camp A107 (very well done if a little short on reality - did they really use the 'human wave' technique in Vietnam? I thought that was used in Korea.).

    I won't bore you with the rest of the movie, since if you've gotten this far in you are in for the long haul anyway! There are a lot of good shots of  military equipment in use both on the ground and in the air (interspersed with actual footage) and there was certainly no expense spared in the making of the movie. It's a pity more can't be said for the plot and the cast. There were an awful lot of overweight soldiers in Vietnam it seems.

Video

    Sharpness is good, complementing the transfer. Backgrounds are generally crisp and clear although during night scenes there is some blurring of detail. There is no visible edge enhancement. The shadow detail is quite reasonable given the age of the source material.

    The film has almost no grain to speak of with two exceptions. These exceptions, it must be noted, are almost certainly composited from actual footage. At 24:54, four "Huey" helicopters are seen flying in formation. There is substantial grain and some macro blocking visible on the fuselages of the helicopters. The second instance is on side two at 53:58 (126:46). The composite shows an actual Fulton Star "Skyhook" extraction. The grain is present mostly on the actual footage. The ultimate effect of a captured NVA general being extracted is quite good though. Today this would all be done with CGI.

    The only major problem with the transfer of this movie is oversaturation of colour. The blues and greens look deep and vibrant but the red overemphasizes skin tones making everyone look like they have a mild case of sunburn.

    There is some macro blocking visible at 23:43 on the edge of a gun barrel attached to a jeep. There is also minor aliasing throughout the movie, but in scenes where you would expect a lot of aliasing (e.g. shots with venetian blinds), there is none. The transfer suffers from some minor film artefacts. These are mostly white flecks and some purple discolourations. They are not a major distraction and diminish rapidly a couple of minutes into the movie.

    There are three sets of subtitles available, English, English for the Hearing Impaired and Arabic. The subtitles were clear and visible throughout the movie.

    This is a FLIPPER disk, requiring flipping at 72:48. The change comes at the end of a chapter and is not too disruptive (apart from being forced to get out of one's comfy chair!).

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue is clear and distinct. There are no noticeable problems with the voice level, fadeouts, pops or dropouts, although there was a slight echo at 5:05 which was possibly due to the age of the original source material. There were no sync problems noted other than two obvious overdubs at 15:52 and 76:00.

    The movie opens and closes with stanzas from the song Ballad of the Green Berets by Barry Sadler, which I believe was a minor hit in its day. The incidental music is by Miklos Rosza (Ben Hur, El Cid, Quo Vadis, Eye of the Needle). The music is exceptionally well done considering the limitations of the soundtrack. It is neither overbearing nor intrusive except for one or two odious pieces meant to elicit sympathy whenever Hamchunk, the resident orphan, appears onscreen.

    The only speaker in use is the centre. Left, Right, Surrounds and Subwoofer are all completely inactive throughout the feature. Sound effects are limited to explosions and gunfire and are reasonably well handled.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

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• Nothing

• 16x9 enhancement

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall