Hamburger Hill - 20th Anniversary
Edition DVD (1987/Lionsgate)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: B+ Feature: B+
At the
risk of making a sweeping generalization, there are three main types of war
films. There is the John Wayne type, which celebrates and romanticizes the
valor of brave soldiers, there is the Apocalypse
Now type which dramatizes and perhaps exaggerates the humanity of war in
order to highlight its cruelty, and the third type, by virtue of not fitting
either of the former, is Hamburger Hill.
Many contemporary war films boast that
they portray the way it was, but no other film I have seen has captured the
sense of reality that Hamburger Hill
has. It was the stated goal of the
filmmakers from conception through execution to portray The Vietnam War, and
the men who were sent there, as historically and realistically as possible.
The
characters are extremely well written and portrayed. They exhibit the characters’ personal foibles
and idiosyncrasies without over-emphasizing them. The characters are human, but the film resists
the temptation to wander into “oh the humanity, will you look at what this war
has done to our souls” territory. And it
is because the characters are human, because the characters are not John
Waynes, yet they achieve what John Wayne achieved in all of his war movies,
that the climax is all that more powerful and the conclusion all that more
satisfying.
My one
major complaint with the film is the score. Now for the record, I am not a fan of Philip
Glass in any case, but for this film in particular he seems to have really
missed the mark. In a film that is very
consciously trying to get away from classic Hollywood dramatic heroism, one
wonders why Glass would write a score that is distinctly reminiscent of precisely
that. Not only that, but the cues are
poorly placed and jarringly brief. Although if the director, John Irvin, shares
my disappointment with the score, then the brevity of its appearance may be his
doing.
The extra
features are excellent and befitting of a 20th anniversary release. The first featurette is a making-of consisting
of interviews with the actors, director, and producer set against clips from
the film, stills from the set, and stock footage of the war. It emphasizes how the filmmaking process was
tailored to generate as realistic a portrayal as possible, and how it affected
the cast and crew. The second
featurette, “Medics in Vietnam”, is exactly what it sounds like. Consisting of interviews with veterans of the
war who served as medics, it sheds light on the military role of one of the
most memorable characters from the film. And for the die-hard enthusiasts, the Vietnam
War Timeline is an interactive menu that outlines the major historical dates of
the war, including the political scenarios that led up to and caused the war. There is also an audio commentary track, which
is essentially an elaboration on what was covered in the first featurette. These features are thankfully historical and
informative and reaffirm the goal of the film, to present the facts of the war,
rather than the myth.
The
transfer to DVD was noticeably well executed with extra attention paid to the
color quality. Greens and browns dominate the screen for nearly the entire
film, but even within that there is variation. During battle scenes the colors are less
distinct, less saturated, and everything washes together. On the other hand, in the scenes between
battles, and particularly earlier on in the film, the greens are rich and
vibrant and pop right out of the screen. This is also true of a few other details
throughout the film, such as the vibrant red and blue on the envelope of a
“Dear John” letter. The film is
presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen.
The same
attention to detail that went into the color transfer is present in the sound
mixing, which pays special attention to small sounds that help to characterize
people or situations. Unfortunately, the
sound is low across the board which makes just about everything hard to hear
unless you really crank up the volume.
Hamburger Hill is an excellent film that goes
beyond the expectations of most other war films. Both the film itself and the DVD have good
points and bad points, but the good points are very good, almost startlingly
so, and the bad points are minor enough to be overlooked.
- Matthew Carrick
