BY DOUG OSWALD
R.
Lee Ermey and Wings Hauser are Marines defending an American outpost in Vietnam
during the Tet Offensive in “The Siege of Firebase Gloria,†directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith and recently released
on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber. The 1989 release was an independent production
filmed on location in the Philippines which is a common stand-in for Vietnam. The
movie opens as Marines come across a recent massacre in a South Vietnamese village.
The destruction is horrific with decapitated heads and piles of bloody bodies
killed by the enemy in order to send a message to others not to assist the Americans.
The Marines make their way to helicopter transport after rescuing an American
prisoner and fighting the Vietcong hiding in a fishing camp. The Marines’ destination
is Firebase Gloria, a jungle outpost surrounded by North Vietnamese soldiers
and Vietcong.
Ermey,
a Marine in real life, is very good as the tough Marine Sergeant Major Bill
Haffner. He takes his Marines across hostile Vietnamese territory and leads
them in reinforcing and defending the firebase against a continuous onslaught
by the Vietcong. His second in command, Corporal Joseph L. DiNardo (Hauser), is
younger and a bit more jaded than Haffner, but not about to take any chances
with the enemy. Gloria is surrounded by Vietcong and its defenses offer little
more than a series of buildings on a hill surrounded by barbed wire and
soldiers in trenches. The men assigned to Gloria know the situation is bleak
and spend their time indulging in getting high on drugs.
The
drug-using commanding officer has gone crazy so Haffner and DiNardo arrange a
fake attack that results in the commander being wounded and airlifted out of
Gloria. Haffner takes command, removes the drugs and strengthens the base
defenses in anticipation of the predictable attacks to come. After being
informed by the First Sergeant of the presence of female medical staff on
Firebase Gloria, Sergeant Major Haffner responds with one of the best of his many
sarcastic lines of dialog, “The shit's gettin' pretty goddamned deep around
here. Is there any nuns or Girl Scouts that I should know about on the
firebase?†Margaret Gerard plays the head nurse, Captain Cathy Flanagan, the
only major female character in the movie. She has a few good scenes mostly playing
off Ermey’s sarcastic comments, but she has very little else to do in the
movie.
The
battle scenes are relentless and bloody with little time for a break. Scenes of
the enemy assessing the situation at Firebase Gloria are dispersed between the series
of attacks, but don’t really add much to the movie. It feels as though the
filmmakers were attempting to humanize the Vietcong in these scenes, but it
doesn’t quite work and only adds unnecessary sub-titled dialog between the
Vietcong commander and his second in command as a sort of counterpoint to
Haffner and DiNardo. There is a scene during the climactic battle where the
Vietcong commander and Haffner are going at each other hand-to-hand just as the
enemy over-runs the base, but the Vietcong commander retreats upon arrival of
several Army Huey helicopters, thus ending their assault.
Ermey
receives second billing to Wings Hauser, but Hauser is one of the weakest
aspects of this movie. Watch “The Siege of Firebase Gloria†for colorful dialog
by Ermey which adds the right touch of sarcastic counterpoint and humor,elevating
the film away from the typical gung-ho action movie. This rarely seen gem has
been missing in action on home video for years except for used VHS copies. MGM finally
made it available as a burn to order DVD in 2012. I haven’t viewed that disc,
but this Blu-ray looks and sounds pretty good, though there is an acceptable
amount of grain in the picture. The only extra on this Kino Lorber release is
the trailer. This movie is nowhere near the caliber of Vietnam War classics
like “Apocalypse Now,†“The Deer Hunter†and “Full Metal Jacket,†but is
recommended for fans of old fashioned military action B-movies and a memorable
performance by the terrific R. Lee Ermey.
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