First, I don't agree with John Pilger's anti-American outlook in his body of work, nor do I share his belief that every U.S. foreign policy decision is an extension of our attempt to colonize the world and exploit it (to be fair, he is just as antagonistic to the U.K.). That being said, while in Vietnam circa 1970 he and his crew stumbled upon this story of U.S. grunts by then pretty much giving up trying to win the war and simply trying to save their own skins and get home.
The film captures the look and feel of Saigon and the Cambodia border outposts with an authenticity that is impossible to capture in a period piece. We meet a bored PsyOps Captain with a demented sense of humor who clearly has been flying around the jungle for too long. We see a depressing USO dance ensemble try to cheer up burned out grunts by singing Blood, Sweat, and Tears "And When I Die" with no sense of irony. We see interviews with career soldiers in the rear with the gear transposed with those of draftees just trying to survive. There is an abundance of interesting footage collected by Pilger that was never seen on U.S. TV during the 1960s, some of it was repurposed into Ken Burns' 2017 series, "The Vietnam War." It is also obvious that Coppola and Kubrick watched this at some time, as many of the shots in Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket seem to include their influence.
I wish he could have captured the names of the people he interviews, although I suspect that he intentionally left them out so as not to have them face reprisals after the broadcast. What happened to these people after their return? Who is the young guy with a smirk who joked about knowing officers getting fragged "in another unit?"
If you have any interest in the subject matter, check out The Quiet Mutiny. It is available on YouTube.
The film captures the look and feel of Saigon and the Cambodia border outposts with an authenticity that is impossible to capture in a period piece. We meet a bored PsyOps Captain with a demented sense of humor who clearly has been flying around the jungle for too long. We see a depressing USO dance ensemble try to cheer up burned out grunts by singing Blood, Sweat, and Tears "And When I Die" with no sense of irony. We see interviews with career soldiers in the rear with the gear transposed with those of draftees just trying to survive. There is an abundance of interesting footage collected by Pilger that was never seen on U.S. TV during the 1960s, some of it was repurposed into Ken Burns' 2017 series, "The Vietnam War." It is also obvious that Coppola and Kubrick watched this at some time, as many of the shots in Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket seem to include their influence.
I wish he could have captured the names of the people he interviews, although I suspect that he intentionally left them out so as not to have them face reprisals after the broadcast. What happened to these people after their return? Who is the young guy with a smirk who joked about knowing officers getting fragged "in another unit?"
If you have any interest in the subject matter, check out The Quiet Mutiny. It is available on YouTube.
