Archive for: Vietnam

‘China Beach’: Network TV Takes on the Vietnam War

China Beach has finally gotten a DVD release in an elaborate box set. The 1988–91 ABC TV series examined the Vietnam War from the perspective of women, both those who served and civilians who experienced the war up close. +Continue Reading

Revisiting the ‘Ten Thousand Day War’

Made for Canadian television in 1980 and later syndicated to American stations, Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War is an almost twelve-hour documentary about the history of Vietnam from the end of WWII through the fall of Saigon in 1975. Time Life has just issued the series in a 4 DVD set.

Future CNN war correspondent (and Canadian) Peter Arnett wrote the narration and conducted the interviews for the series and the Richard Basehart narrates the documentary, something that might be disconcerting for anyone who recognizes his voice as the narrator of Knight Rider. +Continue Reading

Jane Fonda Learned ‘Empathy is Revolutionary’ From Vietnam Vets

Jane Fonda tells Oprah that thing she did in North Vietnam was an “unforgivable mistake” and talks about what she learned when she apologized to a group of Vietnam Veterans in an episode of Oprah’s Master Class. The clip surfaced because Oprah’s running a followup interview with Fonda on Sunday April 7th at 9pm on Oprah’s Next Chapter. +Continue Reading

The Fog of War: Robert McNamara

“I know what many of you are thinking. You’re thinking, ‘This man is duplicitous. You’re thinking that he has held things close to his chest. You’re thinking that he did not respond fully to the desires and wishes of the American people. And I want to tell you ‘you’re wrong’.”   — Robert S. McNamara in The Fog of War

I’m ashamed to say I’d never heard of The Fog of War until a few days ago. Though it’s been out for nearly ten years, I was surprised to find that none of my friends had heard of it, much less seen it. That seemed a good enough reason to pass it along here. +Continue Reading

Jane Fonda in Outer Space

The girl is fully armed.

Jane Fonda has made a lot of poor choices in her life.

If you’re reading this second paragraph, please realize that a big chunk of our readers didn’t make it this far. They’ve already scrolled to the bottom and are furiously hammering away in the comments section about her stupid trip to Hanoi during the Vietnam War and even stupider comments about the POWs.

Most of America forgave her sometime around the mid-80s when Dolly Parton joined her in 9-to-5 and she made a mint off her exercise videos but there’s a contingent that won’t let it go; those folks are not going to like the new reissue of Barbarella on Blu ray. The rest of us might want to consider whether to add it to Jane’s list of bad decisions. +Continue Reading

Good Morning, Vietnam Turns 25

Good Morning, Vietnam just got released in its own 25th Anniversary Blu-ray edition. Allegedly based on the life of Adrian Cronauer, the disc jockey who gets credit for being the first guy to play rock and roll on Armed Forces Radio, Barry Levinson’s movie is really a just a framework that allows Robin Williams to go wild with his improv without interfering with the plot. +Continue Reading

NPR Amazed That Soldiers Can Rock

NPR posted a story this week about the “U.S. Army’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Past,” promoting the great discovery that the U.S. Army is the largest employer of musicians in the country. It’s part of a story that profiles a new CD/vinyl box set called East of Underground: Hell Below that features four groups that participated in the Army’s show band contest in 1971 & 1972. +Continue Reading

Quarry’s Ex: Exclusive Excerpt

Bestseller Max Allan Collins returns with QUARRY’S EX, an all-new adventure of his longest-running series character, the ruthless hitman known as Quarry.

Set in the 1980s, QUARRY’S EX tells the long-awaited story of Quarry’s first encounter with his ex-wife since discovering her cheating on him upon his return from military service in Vietnam. His murder of her lover was the act that set him off on the path toward becoming one of America’s most in-demand killers for hire. When he runs into her in QUARRY’S EX, she’s married again – to a movie director who’s been marked for murder by a rival hitman.

Max Allan Collins is the award-winning author of Road to Perdition, the graphic novel that inspired the Oscar-winning movie starring Paul Newman and Tom Hanks. Collins first wrote about Quarry in 1976, and since then the character has appeared in ten books and The Last Lullaby, a feature film starring Tom Sizemore.

Titan Books has given UTR an exclusive excerpt. Click through to read about Quarry’s service in the Marines and his return from Vietnam. +Continue Reading

Sheenpocalypse Now

While a Charlie Sheen Roast doesn’t sound like much of a good idea, Comedy Central went ahead and taped one and scheduled it to run the same night as the premier of the Ashton Kutcher version of Two and a Half Men. No matter, since we get this promo with Charlie reenacting one of the best moments from his dad’s performance in Apocalypse Now and an actual appearance by Martin Sheen himself at the end.

Vietnam Vet Kicks Off at 61

61-year-old Vietnam vet Alan Moore aims to be the oldest man to play NAIA college football when he suits up as kicker for the Faulkner University Eagles in Montgomery, AL.

Moore played a season for the Jones (Miss.) Community College team in 1968 before heading off to Vietnam for an 11-month tour as a member of the U.S. Army Infantry. He decided to give football another go a couple of years ago and the Birmingham News reports on the roundabout journey that brought him to Faulkner. +Continue Reading