84 Charlie MoPic (1989)

Well, I finally managed to, um, find a way to watch this in its entirety, and quite frankly its not quite as good as I remembered.  But 84 Charlie MoPic is still a decent, little-known (and incredibly hard to come by) film about a squad during the Vietnam war, being “documented” by an army cameraman as they go on patrol in the jungle….

First off, I just have to say this:  Brian DePalma should have used this as a reference for his similar but just-plain-awful faux-documentary Redacted.  If you’re going to do it, do it right.

That being said, there really isn’t anything all that spectacular about 84C.  The acting is not terrible, but not particularly wonderful either.  The only familiar face I recognized was that of a younger Glenn Morshower (Pierce from “24″)….  Yet despite that shortcoming, somehow this film manages to keep you engaged, and you’re able to connect with the characters and feel what they’re feeling.  And yeah, the “short” jokes get a little tiresome, and a bit forced (sorry Zack!)….

What you do have is a rather diverse group of men (albeit stereotypes), who under normal conditions “back home” likely wouldn’t have anything to do with each other.  Still they are able to band together, and as they one-by-one fall for various reasons, the bond they share becomes obvious.  And by the end, even MoPic has been accepted into their group, albeit a little too late.

Part of the reason 84 Charlie MoPic “gets it right” despite the production, is the attention to detail, and it appears they got Mr. Dale Dye to advise on this one (listen for him on the radio!)

All-in-all, if you want a glossy Hollywood rendition of things, then you might as well forget it.  But as a decent indy effort it really does the job well.

And it figures, the whole bleeding thing appears to be on YouTube if you want to follow the pieces.  Here’s a chunk for your amusement….

Related posts:

1. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
2. Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
3. Casualties of War (1989)
4. The Iron Triangle (1989)
5. Glory (1989)
6. The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission (1987)

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 2:31 am and is filed under 1980s, Reviews, Vietnam War Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.