The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1989)

Simply A Masterpiece

Instant Favorite.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

When I started to watch this movie, I hadn't heard anything about it and didn't expect very much. I was therewith pleasantly surprised. Make no mistake, this is no masterpiece, but a well done entertaining piece of work which (even) makes you think a little at times.I found the acting to be uniformly quite decent, even though the VietCong are mostly closer to being cartoon characters than real people. What carries the movie though, is the performance by Ermey, R. Lee. Once again he shows there is nobody better than him for roles like these. He is simply excellent! The camera and sound are both satisfactory, and the special f/x as well, considering we are talking about a motion picture made in the eighties (no CGI, etc.). All in all, after almost 30 years, this film withstands the test of time and is definitely worth a look.

In the thick of the Vietnam war, Sgt. Hafner (Ermey) is told to defend Firebase Gloria against the Viet Cong at all costs. His top man, Di Nardo (Wings) is there to back him up. But due to the dangerous and precarious situation, and the many obstacles the men face, Di Nardo begins to crack. The jaded Di Nardo's faith in humanity seems somewhat restored by his growing love for a young Vietnamese child he rescued, who he nicknamed Peewee, but the enemy is on the move, and even idealistic medics like Flanagan (Gerard) will have to challenge their own assumptions about the world. The men and women at the Firebase are simply Americans forced to deal with extraordinary circumstances. Can they do it? Brian Trenchard-Smith does it again! This amazing director, who gave us sparkling gems such as The Man From Hong Kong (1975) and Stunt Rock (1980), among so many others, here turns in a top-notch Vietnam tale. The 80's was seemingly in the midst of a Vietnam movie boom - films such as Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Hamburger Hill (1987) and Casualties of War (1989) appeared in the mid-to-late 80's, giving filmmakers, particularly writers and directors of a particular age, an outlet to finally look back and process what happened after the passage of a certain amount of time. Apparently it was all kind of a collective nostalgia of sorts, as all these movies appeared at the same time, and all of the above-mentioned movies went to the movie theater. So naturally it wasn't long before the DTV crowd came to reap the benefits, and more modest, lower-budget ventures began to appear, perhaps best indicated by director Cirio Santiago, who spent a decent chunk of his career making jungle slogs typified by the likes of Firehawk (1993) and Eye of the Eagle III (1989). Thankfully, 'Siege is closer to those theater-ready efforts than the latter DTV ones.With Trenchard-Smith at the helm, and with Wings front and center, backed beautifully by Ermey, Nicholson, Strzalkowski, and the rest of the cast, it can't fail to be a thoughtful, well-made, entertaining movie that is patriotic, but not obnoxiously so. It simply shows the soldiers in Vietnam as real, human men, put in an impossible situation, against insane odds, and attempting to survive and return home to their families. Add to that some firefights and war violence, and what more can you ask of the movie? It shows clearly the hardships the U.S. faced, and with the presence of Ermey, adds that much more authenticity (It's funny how people live up to their name - R. Lee Ermey is very close to "Army" - did his parents decide his future once he was born?). Trenchard-Smith and the gang were clearly going for realism, not Hollywood bravado, and this is, in part, why The Siege of Firebase Gloria, while released in the golden year for video stores, 1989, has withstood the test of time so well.The cast of the movie, especially Wings, were probably happy to be involved with a significant, substantive piece like this, as opposed to a lot of the crud they're probably normally offered. Thus, Wings shines in his role. In a career of great roles, this one stands out as among his best. But he's almost upstaged by someone we just heard of from this movie - an actor named Gary Hershberger, who plays Moran. Hershberger is great in the role, proving you don't have to be a Hollywood big shot - if you're good, you're good and you stand out. We always tout working actors like this - there are so many out there that are good quality actors, but are never talked about in the tabloids or sit and talk to Jay Leno. God bless Hershberger, M.C. Gainey, Jerry Wasserman, Marco Rodriguez, Barry Flatman, Wynn Irwin, and their ilk. They, in large part, are what keep movies and TV shows of the good quality we've come to expect and take for granted.Released by Fries home video, whose track record of what they were able to put on video store shelves was hit-or-miss at best, scored a definite hit by acquiring this one for U.S. video release. The Siege of Firebase Gloria is indeed glorious. A winner.

This has some of the stupidest fight scenes of all time. If I was a veteran of any war I would cry when I see this movie, not because I would remember being in Vietnam, but because it is a poor representation of any veteran of that war. Even though the troops are carrying M16s, that movie resembles nothing like Vietnam. The Viet Cong even uniforms look like old leftover Japanese uniforms from a WWII movie. The setting is obviously some crappy Hollywood back lot. The worst scene contains a US soldier fighting "hand to hand" like in a bad martial arts movie. After he dispatches several enemy troops he says, "hey come down here and lets kick some butt!" to a helicopter in the air. He then is shot. This movie is trash.

This is one of the better VN war movies from the "eye level" of small unit tactics, except for some small hiccups, such as a machine gunner not taking cover in a firefight("Private Ryan" was much worse on this aspect). I could not, however, help being irritated by the traditional Army vs. USMC rivalry being put out in this film as USMC Superiority (Something Ermy did not protest against I'd reckon). This is insulting to the Army specs units such as Rangers and Green Berets. It is a stupid argument, as the functions of each are essentially different, Marines are Sea/Land force insertion specialists, Rangers are Recon and Commando Raiders, Green Berets are Teachers and advisor's. The same anti Army mythology was used in "Boys in Company C", which Ermy was in also BTW. (I'm better situated than most to comment on this, as I was a Marine Reserve before I went on active duty in the Army back in 72' I have insight into both services and the atmosphere of those times). That being said, it should be noted that there was a lot of dope use and undisciplined behavior in many of the large troop units (draftee) back then, as reflected in the larger culture of the day.(Look up Operation Red Snow, the NVA's use of heroin as a weapon in VN) I would say this is to Nam' films what "Pork Chop Hill" was to Korean War films...