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When Hamburger Hill landed in 1987, it was already facing the daunting task of filling the large and imposing shoes of other Vietnam Era movies such as “Platoon” and “Apocalypse Now”.  It did a decent job of this, but ultimately it falls short before the final climactic battle takes center stage on the screen. 

When Hamburger Hill landed in 1987, it was already facing the daunting task of filling the large and imposing shoes of other Vietnam Era movies such as “Platoon” and “Apocalypse Now”.  It did a decent job of this, but ultimately it falls short before the final climactic battle takes center stage on the screen.

The key to enjoyment of Hamburger Hill is to remember that it is in fact a drama, with a bit of action thrown on top.  Much time is spent developing the characters sprinkled throughout the film.  As long as you’re prepared to slog through this development before you get to the battles, you’ll be in good shape.  The writing and the movie are very solid and very realistic; perhaps one of the more realistic Vietnam films to escape from Hollywood.  They give you all the details though, from the arrival of new recruits, to day to day life on the lonely bases scattered throughout the dense jungles of Vietnam.

This character development is helped along by some high end acting from newly minted actors getting their first shots.  From the likes of Dylan McDermott, Don Cheadle, and Steven Weber, all three of these men have gone on to bigger and brighter futures.  In Hamburger Hill, we find these men eager to prove themselves as actors and their performances reflects this.  All manage to be believable and endearing in some way, shape, or form.  There are also many other familiar faces sprinkled about, and all combine to put together an endearing story; it’s just a bit slow at times.

For the 20th Anniversary Edition DVD, they’ve pulled out all the stops as they package the disk itself in a decorative slip case and new cover art that is both striking and helps to set the mood.  Contained within the disk they’ve given us a high quality 16x9 transfer and a nice selection of extras that help to add to the over all experience.  In “Hamburger Hill: The Appearance of Reality” we get an in depth behind the scenes look at the crews time in the Philippines and everything they put into, both life and talent, the making of the film.  We hear from Dylan McDermott, director John Irvin as well as Courtney Vance and others from the supporting cast.  In addition to this we also have a short six minute documentary on the Vietnam Combat Medic, with a look at just what the job entailed, straight from the mouths of former Medics.  Both features managed to be informative and interesting helping to flesh out the over all reality given to us in the feature film.

Hamburger Hill is a different type of Vietnam war movie than Platoon in every regard.  Instead of showing everybody as drug addicts and cold blooded killers, we are shown what appears to be an accurate portrayal of life in the bush, and real honest to goodness soldiers trying to live in such a world. 

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