The most startling aspect of this gripping account of the 101st Airborne’s assault on Hill 937 is that this was not even the bloodiest battle fought by the 101st in Vietnam. That one took place at Dat To and produced more than five times the U.S. casualties, occasioning the throw-away parenthesis of one of Hill’s actors, ‘that was a hill ….’.
Hamburger Hill, as it came to be known, was arguably a defensible military move. Its real importance to the national memory is a function of how it triggered outrage back home at what seemed an inordinate sacrifice of human life for a hill that was soon abandoned. It may be that the purpose of a ‘search and destroy’ battle was not understood, making the desertion of such hard-fought soil appear callous to the point of insanity.
The film only touches upon those matters, focusing instead on the daily, muddy, bloody grind of the grunts charged with taking the hill. With none of the star quality of, say, Oliver Stone’s Platoon, the viewer instead is taken in by the simply grittiness of the soldiers and the muddy hell they were tasked to climb.
They did what they were asked, of course. In the final scenes, one is struck by the absence of celebration when they realize what they’ve accomplished. Weariness and grief trump the hypotheticals of joy.
For anyone wanting to come to grips with the Vietnam experience by the flawed window of cinema, Hamburger Hill must be on the list of must-sees. Less edgy and political than Platoon and Full Metal Jacket (the late 80’s release of those films bookended and to some degree overshadowed this one.).
What happens here is closer to the ground. The mud. The blood. The cameradie of surviving brothers too weary to smile. The tears.
Canter Bridge 
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