The Dumbest, Laziest, Most Dishonest Film of All Time?

[Crankie Avalon]

Off-hand, I'd say "The Green Berets" might take the cake...


(Marion "John" Wayne once again
pretending to do onscreen what he
passed on when he had his chance
in real life)



As the Sun Sets on the Popularity of the War...

by

Paige Tredinnick

Ray Kellogg and John Wayne's 1968 movie The Green Berets opens with a press conference hosted by the Green Berets themselves, as they attempt to answer the snippy questions of skeptical reporters as to why we are fighting in Vietnam. I think we are even supposed to feel sorry for the big army men as the inexcusably un-American and rude radical journalists accost them. The film tackles this rather daunting task head-on, as if unaware of any reasons why the American public would ever question the legitimacy of military involvement in Asia, either in 1968 or ever. The film is an obvious "press conference" with an American public that is visibly skeptical and in need of answers. John Wayne, in co-directing and starring in The Green Berets, might as well have been working directly for the U.S. government as he propagandizes for the military.

Katherine Kinney, in her book Friendly Fire: American Images of the Vietnam War, sums up the film perfectly when she says that "The Green Berets can be seen as the final act in Wayne's personal audition to play the mythic embodiment of the American ideologies that went to Vietnam: anticommunism, racism, and imperialism masked by the rhetoric of manifest destiny and mission."<1> She quotes Eric Bentley as emphasizing "Wayne's role as president of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, founded in 1944 to combat 'the growing impression that this industry is made up of, and dominated by, Communists, radicals and crack-pots,' and its link to the naming of names before the House Un-American Activities Committee. HUAAC's Hollywood investigations, Bentley argues, coerced the members of the entertainment industry not only to defend themselves as not communist but to become 'anticommunist,' thus moving the center to the right and paving the road to Vietnam."<2>

The film, of course, is an unintentionally humorous, thin, and messy shell for anti-communist sentiments, and it was in fact overseen by top government officials proving that not everyone, if they just put his or her mind to it, can write. According to Dr. Chester Yosarian of the United States Army, "personally supervising all levels of production, The Duke ordered that all military, political and diplomatic aspects of America's 'backchannel' military mission in Vietnam be screen-written into The Green Berets' dialogue and action. Lyndon Johnson Administration and military consultants some of whom served in Vietnam-related federal duties as far back as the Eisenhower Administration attended every filming sequence."<3>

Unfortunately for the film, there were no geological or astronomical experts to assist the filmmakers, as the sun, in an unusual turn of events, sets in the East over the South China Sea. Other than that, we can only assume that The Green Berets, with all its pro-war and anti-communist sentiments and excessive violence was just what the government wanted it to be, as they undeniably had a hand in the production. They were wise to choose Wayne as their messenger to the people, because according to Garry Wills, "The Green Berets was a commercial success despite all critical ridicule."<4> Yet again, Wayne serves as a willing political pawn.

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<1> Katherine Kinney, Friendly Fire : American Images of the Vietnam War, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2000), 15.

<2> Ibid., 16.

<3> Chester A. Yosarian, "The United States Army's Green Berets: History Re-evaluated, Corrected and Respected." Dr. Yosarian retired as a Specialist, Fourth Grade from the United States Army in 1972. Under the G.I. Education Bill, Dr. Yosarian completed Masters and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Clinical Psychology with minors in History, Education and Sociology. Along with publishing, speaking engagements and Department of Defense-related consulting, Dr. Yosarian's most recent work is in encouraging and assisting military veterans of all ranks to pursue writing and higher education for the purpose of assuming Elder Statesman status. <http://us.imdb.com/Reviews/51/5197> Accessed on April 29, 2001.

<4> Garry Wils, John Wayne's America: The Politics of Celebrity. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), 233.

http://mcel.pacificu.edu/jwasia/reviews/beretsPT.html