Hamburger Hill is a 1987 American war film set during the Battle of Hamburger Hill, a May 1969 assault during the Vietnam War by the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, on a ridge of Dong Ap Bia near the Laotian border in central Vietnam. The ridge was a well-fortified position, including trenchworks and bunkers, of the North Vietnamese Army. U.S. military records of the battle refer to the mountain as "Hill 937," its map designation having been derived from the high elevation of the hill at .
Written by James Carabatsos and directed by John Irvin, the film starred Michael Boatman, Don Cheadle, Dylan McDermott (his film debut), Courtney B. Vance, Steven Weber and Tim Quill. It was produced by RKO Pictures and distributed by Paramount Pictures, and was shot in the Philippines. The novelization was written by William Pelfrey.
Plot
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In 1969, a platoon of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, receives five new recruits as replacements: Privates Joseph Beletsky, Vincent Languilli (soon called Alphabet), Johnny Washburn, Martin Bienstock and Paul Galvan. At the same time, platoon sergeant, Sergeant First Class Dennis Worcester is breaking in a new platoon leader, Lieutenant Terry Eden.
The five privates are assigned to 3rd Squad, led by battle-weary Staff Sergeant Adam Frantz. As Frantz gives them a crash-course in battlefield skills, a Viet Cong deserter silently penetrates a barbed wire barrier and aims a rocket launcher at them.
The platoon's specialists<!--- per on-screen lapel markings - not included in credits ---> include the machine gun team of Michael Duffy and Frank Gaigin, along with African-American veterans Ray Motown, Abraham "Doc" Johnson and Sgt. Elliott McDaniel who share their experiences of racial discrimination still practiced in the army. The new arrivals get their first, sudden taste of war when a mortar barrage decapitates Galvan.
The platoon is air-lifted into the A Sầu Valley for an assault on Hill 937. McDaniel, whose tour of duty is nearly over, is killed in a firefight shortly after disembarking at the landing zone. This loss provokes considerable bitterness and tension from Doc, who blames Frantz for not getting the short-timer McDaniel a less dangerous assignment.
Hill 937 soon becomes known as Hamburger Hill when unexpectedly determined resistance is encountered from NVA defenders in well-entrenched positions. The platoon attacks repeatedly against stubborn opposition. Between assaults, US air-strikes steadily strip away vegetation, leaving the hill a barren, scorched wasteland. In one assault, a battle-crazed and wounded Duffy, wielding an M60 machine gun, seems on the verge of overcoming enemy resistance but is killed by botched air support by helicopter gunships.
During lulls in the fighting the shrinking platoon chatters about social upheaval and unrest back home. Bienstock is devastated by a letter from his girlfriend, whose college friends have told her that it is immoral to remain with a soldier. A cassette tape from Beletsky's girlfriend Claire moves Frantz when she mentions his name. Worcester describes the alienation and hostility from anti-war college students, and the breakdown of his marriage, on his return from a previous tour of duty. He tells of a good friend, whose son had been killed in Vietnam during the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang, who receives cruel phone calls gloating over his son's death.
On day seven, returning downhill from their ninth assault, Frantz confronts a reporter, telling him he has more respect for the NVA they're fighting, and threatens to shoot him for taking pictures of his men. During the tenth assault, in torrential rain, Gaigin is killed while Beletsky and Doc are wounded. Doc tells Frantz and Motown to capture the hill so that they will at least have something to be proud of, then succumbs to his wounds moments before a medevac helicopter lands. Beletsky, despite having received a "million dollar wound," returns to the action.
The eleventh and final assault is mounted by troops whose bitterness and exhaustion is overcome by desperation and unit pride. The final enemy positions are overrun at heavy cost. Lieutenant Eden loses his right arm, while Murphy, Worcester, Motown, Bienstock and Languilli are killed. Frantz, stunned by the loss of so many friends, is dazed and wounded by an enemy bayonet. Beletsky, wounded but enraged, leads the final push to the summit where a bleeding and exhausted Frantz, Washburn and Beletsky sit together in the dirt as the battlefield finally goes silent.
The film's epilogue is a poem by Major Michael Davis O'Donnell, January 1, 1970, Đăk Tô, Vietnam which reads as follows: "If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may not have always. Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind."
Cast
<!--- WP:NOTDATABASE - cast and roles per Main Cast closing tombstone stand-alone credits --->
NOTE: Listed in order of authority and rank. The green color coded boxes in the rows indicate that character survived the battle. The pink colored boxes indicate the character either died or was wounded. Actors and roles as credited onscreen.
{| class="wikitable"
! Actor
! Character
!
! Classification="background-color: #BCBCBC" | Classification
! Weapon="background-color: #BCBCBC" | Primary Weapon(s)
! Rank
|-
|Tegan West || Lt. Eden || style="background: #ffdddd" | || Platoon Leader || M16A1 || Second Lieutenant
|-
|Steven Weber || Worcester || style="background: #ffdddd" | || Platoon Sergeant || M16A1 || Sergeant First Class
|-
|Dylan McDermott || Frantz || style="background: #ddffdd" | || 3rd Squad Leader || M16A1 || Staff Sergeant
|-
|Don James || McDaniel || style="background: #ffdddd" | || 3rd Squad Assistant Leader/ Grenadier || M79 Grenade Launcher || Sergeant
|-
|Courtney B. Vance || Doc || style="background: #ffdddd" | || Medic || M16A1 || Specialist Four<!--- per on-screen lapel markings - not included in credits --->
|-
|Michael Patrick Boatman || Motown || style="background: #ffdddd" | || Rifleman || M16A1 || Specialist Four
|-
|Harry O'Reilly || Duffy || style="background: #ffdddd" | || Machine Gunner || M60 Machine Gun || Specialist Four
|-
|Daniel O'Shea || Gaigin || style="background: #ffdddd" | || Assistant Gunner/ Machine Gunner || M16A1 / M60 Machine Gun || Specialist Four
|-
|Michael Dolan || Murphy || style="background: #ffdddd" | || Radioman || M16A1 || Specialist Four
|-
|M.A. Nickles || Galvan || style="background: #ffdddd" | || Rifleman || M16A1 || Private First Class
|-
|Don Cheadle || Washburn || style="background: #ddffdd" | || Rifleman/ Machine Gunner || M16A1 / M60 Machine Gun || Private First Class
|-
|Tim Quill || Beletsky || style="background: #ddffdd" | || Rifleman/ Grenade Launcher || M16A1 / M79 Grenade Launcher || Private First Class
|-
|Tommy Swerdlow || Bienstock || style="background: #ffdddd" | || Rifleman/ Machine Gunner || M16A1 / M60 Machine Gun || Private First Class
|-
|Anthony Barrile || Languilli ( Alphabet) || style="background: #ffdddd" | || Rifleman || M16A1 || Private First Class
|}
Production
Producer Marcia Nasatir had a son who fought as a soldier in the Vietnam War, which is one of the reasons why she came up with the idea for the film. Writer and co-producer James Carabatsos had served with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1968–69 and spent five years interviewing soldiers involved in the combat there and researching the Battle of Hamburger Hill. John Irvin, an English-born filmmaker, worked on several documentaries in Vietnam in 1969.
The film was produced independently, with the money being raised through foreign sales. According to Irvin, Paramount passed on Hamburger Hill when they initially pitched it, but they picked it up when the film was finally shot in the Philippines.
Critical response
Vincent Canby of The New York Times called Hamburger Hill a "well-made Vietnam War film that narrows its attention to the men of a single platoon in a specific operation". Differentiating the film from Platoon, released the year before, he noted the film "refuses to put its characters and events into any larger frame. It could have been made a week after the conclusion of the operation it recalls, which is both its strength and weakness, depending on how you look at it". Hal Hinson of The Washington Post credited the filmmakers for creating a "deeply affecting, highly accomplished film", but felt that "<nowiki>[Carabatsos]</nowiki> and his collaborators seem to feel compelled not only to show us their war, but tell us what we're to think about it", weakening the film's effect and keeping it from being a "great war movie".