THE GREEN BERETS

"They were crack troops skilled in the techniques of unconditional warfare, the soldiers of the Special Forces – and the focus of Hollywood’s first feature film about the Vietnam War: The Green Berets. John Wayne stars in and co-directs this red-white-and-blue depiction of America’s Vietnam effort, based on Robert Moore’s novel. Wayne wrote to President Lyndon Johnson to request military assistance for the film – and got more than enough firepower to create an impressive spectacle. Its soldiers fit the tried-and-true mould of earlier Wayne war classics like Back to Bataan and Sands of Iwo Jima. Their heroics are timeless.