1968 Tunnel Rats

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source: 1968 Tunnel Rats

People thought he could never do.. but he did and this is the best film he has made so far. Uwe Boll the German director who has be come known for the creation of some of the worst films in history. And most of them were video game adaptations. But maybe Postal was the beginning of a transformation. it wasn't a very good film but at least it had some very good bits. Far cry was better but still not great. Tunnel Rats is good. though its not that great and still some visible cracks but at least its the cracks are not so wide. the dialogue is still full of problems but the plot is rather good. the action is intense and meaningful. the film was even very moving at times. I wanted to find problems with the movie but found more good points rather than bad points. which is rare in a Uwe Boll film. many of the characters were still 2 Dimensional but the music,action,plot made up for many of the mistakes. Some war films about Vietnam show the power of the American army, but this film at least shows the Americans being kicked about which I have only seen in Platoon. Uwe Boll has made a film and it is not a bad film.

This film was based on true events and if the US soldiers were as badly trained and stupid as this outfit are portrayed, then it's a wonder they didn't lose the war sooner. For example,we see two soldiers standing over a hole while comrades are below and these two soldiers see the VC coming. Do they find cover from which to fight behind? Nope one stands up swinging a big machine gun one handed arnie style shouting at them. They have a camp in the middle of the jungle and the VC attack, right from the first tent. How on earth would they have gotten that close to a base camp? No fences or guards on duty that day? Please. Then the CO calls for immediate air support as they are being over-run, been over-run would have been more like it. The immediate air support didn't turn up until later when everybody had gone home, had they flown all the way from America? You felt absolutely no sympathy with the characters, we had just about every clichéd character you could think of except the chirpy cockney and the scouse scallywag. They tried to build backgrounds and personalities to the characters but failed miserably, maybe because it was done very lazily, ie having two actors discuss all the characters for our benefit while they eat. The conversation just doesn't seem real. It is a shame because the film started well and the scene in the tunnels involving the mother and kids was genuinely tense but it seemed so out of place with the rest of the film which was, badly acted to say the least. I seem to remember the excellent Tour of Duty TV series covering this subject in one episode and they managed to fit in more tension and understanding of these terrifying tunnels in a fifty minute programme than this film managed. I just kept thinking that 1968 Tunnel Rats was like a bad horror film where the goodies (in this case the tunnel rats)were being picked off one by one by the evil monster (the VC) in different and more nasty ways and the only mystery was who is the one that is going to survive? Is it the guy that believes God will protect him? The CO that is nasty to his men as a way of protecting them and preparing them for the nasties of war etc?

Uwe Bolls Tunnel Rats has just been released on R2UK, and of course I had to run down to the store and get a copy as fast as possible. When Seed came a lot of people was impressed - except the usual Bollbashers - but who cares about them nowadays? Seed was way more cynical than what we've seen from Uwe before, but still had some silliness because the absurd comic book-style killer. But with Tunnel Rats Uwe has abandon every kinda comedy, satire and tongue-in-cheek. Tunnel Rats is dead serious and works very well that way. It's a story about soldiers in the Vietnam-war that are going to clean up the underground tunnels that Viet Cong uses. Of course everything breaks into pure hell... Boll spends some time with the characters first. Let us know them - and let the actors do some impressive and naturalistic performances. It's not a pro-American movie... and not a pro-Vietnamese movie either. It's quite natural and shows the brutality at both forces. For once he injects some personality and motivation to the Viet Congs to, and as good performances as the American actors. It goes into horror-territory (almost) when the tunnels are introduced, but still keeps it realistic. The tunnels are small, because the Vietnamese is small, so it get's extra claustrophobic for the bigger built Americans. Above the ground there's some great action to, well worth a look for those - like me - who loves jungle action. Blood, squibs, limbs blown of, explosions and a nasty feeling of realism. There's no super-soldiers here. People just die. The Bollbashers would celebrate this movie if there was another name as a director, if Boll used an alias. They just hate it because it's Boll directing. I love his popcorn-flicks, but I love even more when he comes in to more darker territories and shows us what the world is about. The ending is dark and cynical, but probably more real than any other Vietnam-movie. Yeah, it's darker than in Seed. And it shows even more the total meaningless of war.

This is probably one of the worst films on Nam I've ever seen. So unorganized and unprofessional that is the guys I served with acted that way none of us would have came home. I like Michael Pare's acting but not in this movie. The writer should have gotten his facts straight or at least talked to some real tunnel rats. Even a unit in the Army that served in Nam didn't act that way in Nam. Not that I ever saw, but my time was in the Marines and not a chance did a Marine unit ever act like this movie portrayed. zadziks from Antarctica gave it a 10, he has no clue or is getting royalties from the DVD sells. Pure waste of time.

"1968 Tunnel Rats" makes a brutal statement about the horrors of war and pulls no punches. Unlike many Hollywood epics which purport to teach their lessons through clever manipulations of the heart, this is no coming-of-age film or family drama couched in a setting of battle. Writer/director Uwe Boll has created a film which is very simply about the futility of war, in this case, set in the jungles of Vietnam. North Vietnamese fighters dug tunnels, sometimes hundreds of miles long, in which they hid, lived, and carried out surprise missions against the Americans. After an ambush of several members of his squad, Sergeant Vic Hollowborn (Michael Pare) returns to the area with a ragtag group of Army soldiers to avenge their deaths. These young men, some barely out of high school, walk blindly into a world they've never known. The ensemble cast does what they need to do -- this is not as much of a character-driven piece as other films of this genre, and the improvised dialogue isn't Hollywood war movie fluff. I've never been in battle but I hope the soldiers in the film are realistically depicted. They certainly aren't romanticized a la "Apocalypse Now." Pare's Sergeant Hollowborn is an effective leader, a man who makes his own rules and expects his men to follow them. Other standouts include Nate Parker as Private Jim Lidford, who thinks his urban roots make him tough enough to breeze through this assignment, and Rocky Marquette as Private Terence Verano, the sweet baby-faced kid who exemplifies what made this particular war so intolerable for American mothers -- he clearly doesn't belong here (not that anybody does). Lidford ought to be back on the basketball court on the corner and Verano ought to be back on the beaches of Lake Michigan. Among the North Vietnamese "enemies," watch for Jane Le as young mother Vo Mai. Her heartwrenching performance will stay with you long after the credits roll. The look is stark and the action unrelenting. The lighting is subdued -- dark and dirty, much like the jungle landscape and tunnels themselves. Opening credits are accompanied by the Zager & Evans' classic "In the Year 2525," which had me deceptively smiling from the start. Jessica de Rooij's score turns ominous after that and was one of the highlights of the movie. But what stood out the most for me was the camera-work of Mathias Neumann. From the copious use of crane shots, as if we are hiding up in the trees ready to pounce, to the hand-held closeups in the tunnel sequences, there is no relief. Visual effects are topnotch and breathtaking. But with few exceptions, "1968 Tunnel Rats" does not rely on sweeping vistas and long shots of masses of soldiers readying for battle. And it doesn't need to. This is about hand-to-hand combat, literally, and the claustrophobic setting is palpable. Shot on location in South Africa, Boll put all the actors through a boot camp with actual mercenaries prior to filming. This wasn't a "Hollywood" boot camp, referring to the usual type of training actors go through before a war movie. No, they were trained by men who literally had been out killing just a few days beforehand. Filmmakers, cast, and crew all took this project seriously and it shows. This film may be difficult to watch but it's too compelling to turn away. There isn't a lot to laugh at, although the characters are well-developed enough that we get to know their hopes and fears. It's also definitely a war movie in the true sense of the genre, with heavy political undertones. But It doesn't try to be all things to all people. "1968 Tunnel Rats" is dark and dirty and about as serious as a film can get. If writer/director Uwe Boll is trying send a message, it comes through loud and clear.

I will not spoil anything and just say the truth : This is an outstanding Vietnam war movies, and that for the following reasons : - Great acting, very "real", makes you feel you are right there in Vietnam with the soldiers - Great directing, especially in the tunnels, which feel very claustrophobic. In conclusion, a great war movie. Very personal as opposed to enormous with thousands of soldiers. I think BOLL just had really bad scripts and did what he could with them. With tunnel rats it was his own ideas that really came out and he did a great job. Please watch and then rate. Don't just think "Oh a stupid German director" and miss a great movie.

Trailer—1968 Tunnel Rats

source: 1968 Tunnel Rats