Movie Reviews : ‘Firebase Gloria’: More Than Mere Blood, Guts

Over the last decade the Vietnam conflict has been amply represented in virtually every sub-genre of war film except the straightforward combat action movie, of which “The Siege of Firebase Gloria” (citywide) is a rare and noteworthy example.

Set during the Tet offensive, “Siege” skips the usual ‘Nam-pic policy of giving lip service to the politicking back home. But it’s hardly a go-Marines picture either. Playing a sergeant in command of a seemingly doomed American outpost, R. Lee Ermey narrates and recounts a reasoned historical perspective: “They (the Vietnamese) had been fighting off foreigners for hundreds of years, and now us. . . . We were killing Charlie wholesale, but Charlie didn’t seem to care. I guess we’d do the same if Charlie occupied South Carolina.”

Ermey does a natural, sympathetic turn here, warm, grizzled, patriotic and worn-out, and gets to show real star power.

By setting the film among soldiers outmanned 5-to-1, the film makers have ensured empathy for their heroes’ bloody defense among all but the most pacifist audiences. Fortunately, Australian director Brian Trenchard-Smith makes sure the gruesomeness of carnage outweighs the inevitable vicarious thrills of close-range combat. He and his co-writers also give the Viet Cong far more credit than would a Stallone or Norris.

In terms of ambition, the film is no “84 Charlie MoPic,” but veterans may find it not that much less credible. Shot cost-effectively in the Philippines, “The Siege of Firebase Gloria” (MPAA-rated R for violence and language) deserves far better than the bottom half of a drive-in bill.