84C MoPic | |
---|---|
Directed by | Patrick Sheane Duncan |
Written by | Patrick Sheane Duncan |
Produced by | Michael Nolin |
Edited by | Stephen Purvis |
Music by | Donovan |
Distributed by | New Century Vista Film Company |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | English Vietnamese |
Box office | $154,264 (US) |
84C MoPic (also known as 84 Charlie MoPic; released in the Philippines as Platoon 2) [1] is a 1989 [2] American independent found footage war drama film written and directed by Patrick Sheane Duncan. [3]
The film is a mock documentary of a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) mission during the Vietnam War. The point of view is from a cameraman following a LRRP team on a five-day patrol deep in "Indian Country" (territory controlled by the North Vietnamese). The cameraman is nicknamed "MoPic" by the team, because of his alphanumeric military occupational specialty, 84C20, Motion Picture Specialist. The supposedly routine mission, however, goes wrong and eventually turns into a struggle for survival. At first the squad seems in control. Their leader, sergeant “OD” (Richard Brooks), detects booby traps, and the squad lays some booby traps of their own. They evade detection by an NVA patrol, and press deep behind enemy lines. One night, over the radio, they hear a whole army company being overrun by an NVA unit. They catch an NVA regiment in the open, and order an artillery strike, taking out much of the enemy.
Now that the NVA knows there are Americans nearby, they avoid any gunfire and make their escape in the bush as silently as possible. OD catches a 6 man NVA patrol on their tail, only 50 meters away. The squad takes them out, and carry a wounded NVA soldier with them. Their position is exposed by the noise, and a sniper takes out Pretty Boy. The sniper repeatedly shoots him in the limbs, torturing him, in an attempt to lure other squad members out into the open. Unable to rescue him, OD mercy kills him. He then demands the LT kill the NVA soldier with a knife to avoid any more noise. He sadistically makes the LT look at pictures of the NVA soldier’s family before LT kills the soldier. The squad continues their escape, but encounter VC troops which wound OD, and kill Cracker. With OD barely able to walk, Hammer, a less experienced squad member, takes point. He triggers a booby trap almost immediately, killing him. With half the squad killed, the survivors make their way to their evacuation point. After a final firefight, MOPIC is killed. OD, LT, and Easy escape in the chopper as the film ends.
84C MoPic was filmed on a low budget in Southern California. [5] [6] The film is one of the earlier examples of found footage, a style famously implemented by The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity . [7] 84 Charlie MoPic has an 83% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 6 reviews. [8] Roger Ebert, awarding the film three stars out of four, wrote
"84 Charlie MoPic" deserves a place by itself among the films about Vietnam. It is a brave and original attempt to record nothing more or less than the actual daily experience of a unit on patrol, drawn out of the memories of men who were there. I’ve never seen a combat movie that seemed this close to actual experience, to the kinds of hard lessons that soldiers are taught by their enemies. The filmmakers have earned their right to shoot with a subjective camera — because the eyes we are really seeing through are their own." [9]
The film received three nominations:
The film is listed among recommended Vietnam war films in a blog post on the Council on Foreign Relations. [11]
Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone, starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Keith David, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, Forest Whitaker, and Johnny Depp. It is the first film of a trilogy of Vietnam War films directed by Stone, followed by Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven & Earth (1993). The film, based on Stone's experience from the war, follows a new U.S. Army volunteer (Sheen) serving in Vietnam while his Platoon Sergeant and his Squad Leader argue over the morality in the platoon and of the war itself.
A long-range reconnaissance patrol, or LRRP, is a small, well-armed reconnaissance team that patrols deep in enemy-held territory.
Hamburger Hill is a 1987 American war film set during the Battle of Hamburger Hill, a May 1969 assault during the Vietnam War by the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, on a ridge of Dong Ap Bia near the Laotian border in central Vietnam. The ridge was a well-fortified position, including trenchworks and bunkers, of the North Vietnamese Army. U.S. military records of the battle refer to the mountain as "Hill 937," its map designation having been derived from the high elevation of the hill at 937 meters (3,074 ft).
Lost Patrol, also known as The Lost Patrol, is a survival action role-playing strategy video game developed by Shadow Development and published by Ocean Software for the Amiga and Atari ST computers in 1990. An MS-DOS port by Astros Productions was published in 1991. Set during the Vietnam War, the game follows a squad of United States Army soldiers who are stranded behind enemy lines after their helicopter crashes, and must reach a U.S. military outpost for rescue.
We Were Soldiers is a 2002 American war film written and directed by Randall Wallace and starring Mel Gibson. Based on the book We Were Soldiers Once… and Young (1992) by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, it dramatizes the Battle of Ia Drang on November 14, 1965.
The Green Berets is a 1968 American war film directed by John Wayne and Ray Kellogg, and starring Wayne, David Janssen and Jim Hutton, based on the 1965 novel by Robin Moore. Much of the film was shot in the summer of 1967. Parts of the screenplay bear little relation to the novel, although the portion in which a woman seduces a North Vietnamese communist general and sets him up to be kidnapped by Americans is from the book.
Richard L. Brooks is an American actor, singer, and director. He played the eccentric bounty hunter Jubal Early in the space-western Firefly and assistant district attorney Paul Robinette in the NBC drama series Law & Order from 1990 to 1993, later appearing as a defense attorney on that same show. In 2013, he began starring as Patrick Patterson in the BET drama series, Being Mary Jane.
The Odd Angry Shot is a 1979 Australian war comedy film written, directed and produced by Tom Jeffrey. It is based on the book of the same title by William Nagle, and follows the experiences of Australian soldiers during the Vietnam War. The movie, which was shot on location in New South Wales and Canungra, Queensland, traces the tour of duty of an Australian Special Air Service Regiment reconnaissance team from their departure to their return home to Australia. It avoids much of the political comment on Australia’s involvement in Vietnam, unlike Hollywood films which tend to explore the rights and wrongs of the Vietnam War.
Tigerland is a 2000 American war drama film directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Colin Farrell. It takes place in a training camp for soldiers to be sent to the Vietnam War.
Conflict: Vietnam is a tactical shooter video game developed by Pivotal Games and published by Global Star Software and SCi Games for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows. Released in 2004, it is the third installment in the Conflict series. A separate version was developed by 8bit Games and published by Synergenix for mobile devices the same year. A port for Gizmondo devices was planned before being cancelled.
R-Point is a 2004 South Korean psychological horror war film written and directed by Kong Su-chang. Set in Vietnam in 1972, during the Vietnam War, it stars Kam Woo-sung and Son Byong-ho as members of the South Korean Army in Vietnam. Most of the movie was shot in Cambodia. Bokor Hill Station plays a prominent part of the movie, in this case doubling as a French colonial plantation. In 2011, Palisades Tartan re-released this film on DVD under the title Ghosts of War.
Patrick Sheane Duncan is an American writer, film producer and director.
Go Tell the Spartans is a 1978 American war film directed by Ted Post and starring Burt Lancaster. The film is based on Daniel Ford's 1967 novel Incident at Muc Wa about U.S. Army military advisors during the early part of the Vietnam War in 1964, when Ford was a correspondent in Vietnam for The Nation.
The Walking Dead is a 1995 war film written and directed by Preston A. Whitmore II and starring Allen Payne, Joe Morton and Eddie Griffin. The film depicts the lives of five Marines who are all assigned to rescue a group of POW during the Vietnam War in 1972. It opened to poor reviews and low box office receipts. Previews billed it as "the black experience in Vietnam".
VC and PAVN battle tactics comprised a flexible mix of guerrilla and conventional warfare battle tactics used by Viet Cong (VC) and the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) to defeat their U.S. and South Vietnamese (GVN/ARVN) opponents during the Vietnam War.
The Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) is a Covert Operation unit of Sri Lanka Army. This unit is also known as the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU). Colonel Raj Vijayasiri of the Special Forces regiment is credited as the main figure who introduced the DPU concept first to Sri Lankan army.
Michael Nolin is an American former motion picture producer, former studio executive, former writer/director and current educator. Since 2003 he has been Professor of Film & Television and Dramatic Writing at SCAD in Savannah, Georgia.
The Battle of Signal Hill was a company size engagement between members of Company E, 52nd Infantry (LRP) long-range reconnaissance patrol of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) from 19 to 21 April 1968 during Operation Delaware. Signal Hill was the name given to the peak of Dong Re Lao Mountain, a densely forested 4,878-foot (1,487 m) mountain in the A Sầu Valley. The strategic location made it an ideal communication and fire support site, vital to the success of Operation Delaware.
Company E, 52nd Infantry, (LRP) was a 120 man-sized long-range reconnaissance patrol unit attached to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in Vietnam in 1967-69. Its origin begins on January 1, 1967, as "LRRP Detachment G2," 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). It was then redesignated "Headquarters & Headquarters Company LRRP Detachment" in April 1967, and redesignated "Company E, 52nd Infantry (LRP)" on December 20, 1967.
Operation Cochise Green was a security and pacification operation during the Vietnam War conducted by the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Bình Định Province from 30 March 1968 to 31 January 1969.
The film simply states the horror — and the boredom — of being a soldier. Writer-director Patrick Duncan...