There are some good battle scenes in here, particularly at night. Other than that, it's a so-so war movie and a little long. At 141 minutes, it could have been a lot better cut to two hours or even less.

There is an interesting lecture to the press by the military early on and that's worth listening to, whether you agree with it or not. John Wayne played his normal tough-on-the-outside-but very human-on-the- inside role, which he so often did in his westerns. This movie also was made right when the Hays Code had been abolished but they still refrained from profanity, to their credit, although it certainly would have been understandable being a war flick.

There were a number of lulls in here to show the soldiers being more than just killing machines. There is one very touching scene with a little boy whose soldier friend does not come back alive. From a war standout, there were interesting Viet Cong booby traps that were brutal but interesting to see. An okay war movie, but nothing special. Unlike most reviews that I've read here, I am just trying to evaluate the film without politics entering into it.

"The Green Berets" has received a lot of flack over the years, a lot of it undeserved. I admit there's a lot about the movie that doesn't work - the tone and attitude of the movie is from the 1940s, not 1969. The subplot about the war orphan is cliched and heavy-handed. The movie was shot in an area that looks nothing like Vietnam. There are some weird attempts at humor. And yes, Wayne didn't have a clear idea as to what the Vietnam conflict was about.

Most of the controversy about this movie comes around this fact. However, looking carefully, one sees that not all of the politics are incorrect. The scene at the beginning, for example, makes clear that soldiers of ANY conflict are just following orders from the government. If you disagree with a conflict, blame the government, not the soldiers.

Also in the beginning, the movie makes a point that the Soviets were giving assistance to the South-East communists - which was true. Wayne's statement suggesting that the Soviets were trying for some kind of world domination actually isn't that far-fetched. Before the Soviet Union fell, there were numerous times when the Soviets gave assistance to other communist countries and forces. (As well, this short beginning scene has most of the politics in the entire movie!)

Some of the protests about the movie are to do with the fact that the North Vietnamese are portrayed as being vicious, and the Americans as a kind of holier-than-thou. While it is true that the Americans committed some atrocities during the conflict, the North Vietnamese committed FAR MORE. The scene in the movie where innocent Vietnamese villagers are killed by the enemy because they accepted help from the Americans has actual basis in fact. Still not convinced, ex-hippies? If the North Vietnamese weren't so bad, why were there thousands of boat people? And take a look at the based-on-true-stories movies "The Hanoi Hilton" and "The Killing Fields" to get an idea of how brutal the South-East Asian communists were to P.O.W.s and ordinary people.

"The Green Berets" also has some excellent battle sequences. In fact, Wayne was so impressed with second-unit director Kellogg's direction of these scenes, he gave him co-directing credit. I will admit that the shot with the toy helicopter did ruin things somewhat. Elsewhere, however, the military hardware and battle techniques are overall very accurate. (Wayne got full cooperation from the U.S. military)

You might think I like this movie. Actually, I don't - I overall didn't like it because it was too slow, and with a lot of boring chat. Still, I don't think it's anywhere near the bomb/laughfest it's been unfairly branded. And I think a lot of people agree: It was the 11th highest grossing movie of 1968, generating $8.7 million in rentals - a HUGE amount in those days! It's also been issued several times on video, and Warner Bros. chose this movie as one of its first "oldies" DVD releases. So clearly a lot of people haven't minded - or didn't care - about its "message".

In reviewing this film, part of me is afraid that some of the more hysterical viewers out there will think I am some sort of Communist because I didn't like this film. Please believe me that I generally love John Wayne films--just not poorly made ones like this one.

The plot is very pro-Vietnam War and this didn't really bother me. Instead, it was the extremely earnest and uninspiring way it went about doing this. Plus, having David Janssen playing a "bleeding heart liberal" reporter seemed silly--I half expected Janssen to start killing Vietcong, also. The casting just didn't work for him. The same was true of John Wayne. Despite his best efforts, he just looks like an incredibly old man trying to play Green Beret--the real soldiers never would have brought an old guy like him along. So, casting was a problem.

The movie was very violent. The scene of the trap springing and the spikes going through one of our heroes was really gross and makes this inappropriate for kids or perhaps even teens. In fact, in general, it was a very violent flick, so violence was a problem.

I also wanted to see the little Vietnamese boy who was Wayne's sidekick in the end of the movie "buy the farm". Interjecting a "cute" little boy into the plot was VERY contrived and inconsistent with the level of violence in the film. So, cute and irrelevant child actors were a problem.

BUT, finally, the absolutely dumbest moment (but one worth watching for film flub buffs) is the sappy ending of the film when Wayne and the little boy walk off in the sunset. The problem is, the sun is setting over the ocean--and the ocean is to the EAST of Vietnam--which makes this scene 100% impossible! For a couple other terrible John Wayne films, try THE CONQUERER or JET PILOT. Both are very unintentionally funny (especially due to WORSE casting decisions than this movie). For better John Wayne films, the list could go on and on and on--he was one heck of an actor and he deserved better fare than this.

By the way, this movie is the far right-wing equivalent to the far-left APOCALYPSE NOW. Both films have agendas that seem to override everything else--in GREEN BERETS, war is fun and glorious and winnable by old fat guys and in APOCALYPSE NOW, all the soldiers are insane, drugged out freaks who should be ashamed of their participation. The ACTUAL TRUTH lies somewhere in between these 2 extremes.