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Hamburger Hill was the name given to a particular hill in the Anchau valley, which saw some of the fiercest and most drawn-out fighting seen in the war. It was a battle that will never be forgotten by those who fought in it, but it's a shame that the film has been forgotten and over-looked by bigger, but not necessarily better films.

The attack on Hamburger Hill is led by Seargeants Franz (Dylan McDermott) and Worcester (Steven Weber), alongside the novice Languilli (Anthony Barille), Washburn (Don Cheadle) and the disillusioned and slightly unhinged Doc Johnson (Courtney B. Vance). It's interesting to note that with the exception of Cheadle, none of the cast ever went onto bigger and better things. This works in the films favour as the cast of the relative unknowns make what could have been cliched, relatively new. So while we may have all seen countless war films featuring soldiers pining for their sweethearts, the fact that these actors come with no pre-conceptions or baggage, means we buy into their situation more.
So while some of the dialogue about the meaning and purpose of the war may be clumsily pushed into the middle of the film, the actors just give it a fresh approach and a quiet dignity.

Make no mistake, 'Hamburger Hill' has nothing new to say at all but doesn't mean it shouldn't be listened to however. So while it may be slightly cheap-looking in places, inventive editing means you can barely tell the join between paper trees and an explosion over the top of it. And Irvin displays the rare talent of having a good sense of place and space. While a lot of Vietnam movies are content to have the troops trudge around in the jungle with no sense of where they're going or how far they've gone, we get the sense of just how far these guys have advanced and how much ground up the hill they've gained.

Irvin stages the battle scenes well with a steady hand. One battle set in a torrential storm with the hill turning into a mud-bath beats the hell out of anything 'Platoon' or 'The Deer Hunter' has to offer. He also takes the time to invest in the after effects of battle, with one long, aching stare from a soldier after a particularly fierce fight summing up the horror of war with no dialogue whatsoever.

If Cheadle is the only one to make a decent career after 'Hamburger Hill', he's by no means the only talent on show here. Vance is the tortured heart of the film, but Weber and McDermott are the stars here, as exhausted men thrust into command with mens lives in their hands when they'd really rather just go home. A confrontation between McDermott and a tv crew and Weber outlining just why he joined up are superb and haunting moments.

'Hamburger Hill' is an unpretentious war movie, but with a lot of class. It never seeks to impart a big message apart from 'war is Hell' but it never wraps itself blindly in the stars and stripes either. There have been better war movies before it and there have been better movies after it...but not many.

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originally posted: 07/08/04 23:49:48
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