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Stan Shaw, Andrew Stevens, Jim Canning, Michael Lembeck, Craig Wasson ... see more see more... , Scott Hylands , James Whitmore Jr. , Noble Willingham , R. Lee Ermey , Santos Morales , Drew Michaels , Karen Hilger , Peggy O'Neal , Vic Diaz , Logan Clarke , Bob Mallett , Frederick Matthews , Helen McNeely , Ken Metcalfe , Claude Wilson , Joe Mari Avellana , Rick Natkin , Chuck Waters , Michaël Cohen , James Canning

Cowritten by director Sidney J. Furie, The Boys in Company C charts the fortunes of five young Marine recruits. Led by Stan Shaw, the quintet is shipped off to Vietnam. The film makes no bones about t... read more read more...he demoralizing effect the war has on its participants, nor the pigheadedness of the military higher-ups who think only in terms of body counts and photo ops. Of the five recruits, the most memorable are Michael Lembeck as Vinnie Fazio, the resident wiseguy (the same type of role played by Lembeck's dad Harvey in 1950s war films) and Andrew Stevens as Billy Ray Pike, a straight-arrow type who succumbs to the lure of drugs; the others are played by Craig Wasson, James Canning, and Scott Hylands. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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28% want to see it

3,252 ratings

R, 2 hr. 7 min.

Directed by: Sidney J. Furie

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DVD Release Date: September 2, 2008

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Flixster Reviews (101)

  • flixsterman
    October 18, 2009
    flixsterman
    One of the first films produced about the American war in Vietnam. I remember it making headlines in 1978, not due to it's merits but to it's shortcomings. Audiences were staying away in droves because it was centered around a very unpopular war that had only recently ended. A... read morelso, Vietnam veterans were complaining that it was unflattering and unrealistic.

    I'd group it with other films of the era like The Green Berets or maybe Go Tell the Spartans that are courageous but not completely honest. A group of films produced by activists, not soldiers, that are more about politics than actual events.
  • DrBenway
    December 6, 2008
    DrBenway
    "Boys" follows five young men from their intensive boot camp training and through 1968 Vietnam among inept leaders and corruption of South-Vietnamese allies.

    The film belongs to the first wave of worthy Vietnam dramas trying to come to terms with America's outcome of the war a... read morend is a preamble to Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, to include the great R. Lee Ermey doing what he does best. Choppy directing still turns out some very fine performances by very good actors.
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  • Dracula787
    October 8, 2009
    Dracula787
    When this was first recommended to me I had never heard of it, which is odd because I?ve always been a fan of movies about Vietnam. In many ways this is a forgotten film and I think that might be because The Deer Hunter came out the same year and eclipsed it. Really this suffer... read mores in comparison to a lot of Vietnam movies; it?s not as thoughtful as The Deer Hunter, as intense as Apocalypse Now, as authentic as Platoon, or as smart as Full Metal Jacket, but view on its own it has its merits. Of all the films I just mentioned, Full Metal Jacket is probably the one it has the closest kinship to, as it has a similar format of showing G.I.s as they are trained and follows them into the battlefield. It even has R. Lee Ermey in a small role as a drill sergent (though he?s not anywhere near as good as he was in the Kubrick film). Unlike Full Metal Jacket this lacks a consistent tone, I think it struggles to decide whether it wants to be a satire or a straightforward war film, if it?s trying to be the later it probably doesn?t work to great, if it?s trying to be the former it works better but it?s not as good as other anti-war films of the era like M*A*S*H or Catch-22.

    I didn?t really find the characters overly interesting and the story is a pretty standard ?tour of duty? type thing. I felt like the movie was really treading water for most of its runtime, but then came the film?s climactic propaganda soccer game. At first this scene seemed really silly, but it eventually developed into a pretty smart allegory for the war itself, and that in many ways redeemed the film for me.
  • LisaH511
    October 15, 2008
    LisaH511
    Awesome movie. Lee Ermy rules. I found it so much better than Full Metal Jacket. (Although the Boot Camp portion of FMJ was great)
  • thedunj
    March 27, 2007
    thedunj
    A very good military movie, really depicted what it was like to go through Marine boot camp in the 1960's.
  • dcs1978
    November 20, 2006
    dcs1978
    This is the movie that started it all for "The Gunny" and the inspiration that led Kubrick to make one of the best casting choices in history. Though not quite as good as FMJ, it is still a must see and a good movie.

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Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy
April 12, 2011
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Furie's film about the combat experience of five soldiers is one of the first movies about thr Vietnam War Full Review

March 26, 2009
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

Janet Maslin
May 9, 2005
Janet Maslin, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

February 9, 2006
Time Out

Click to read the article Full Review

May 24, 2003
Film4

Click to read the article Full Review

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