The Boys in Company C follows the lives of five naïve young Marine inductees from their training in boot camp through a tour in Vietnam that quickly devolves into a hellish nightmare.
The five new USMC recruits – streetwise drug dealer Tyrone Washington (Stan Shaw), naïve hick Billy Ray Pike (Andrew Stevens), longhaired war protestor Dave Brisbee (Craig Wasson), scheming slacker Vinne Fazio (Michael Lembeck), and would-be war chronicler Alvin Foster (James Canning) – bond during six weeks of harrowing training then encounter pure lunacy in Vietnam once they fall under the command of Captain Collins (Scott Hylands), a gung-ho fool who regularly endangers his men by pursuing pointless missions, Collins earns enmity from all of his subordinates, even his seasoned second-in-command, Lieutenant Archer (James Whitmore, Jr.).
Foster’s narration, representing entries in his combat journal, ties the film together.
Disheartened by futile combat, appalled by the corruption of their South Vietnamese ally, and constantly endangered by the incompetence of their own company commander, the young men find a possible way out of the war.
They are told that if they can defeat a rival soccer team, they can spend the rest of their tour playing exhibition games behind the lines.
But as they might have predicted, nothing in Vietnam is as simple as it seems.
Recognised as the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick s Full Metal Jacket(1987), the movie is a frighteningly realistic critique of the pointlessness and corruption universally associated with the Vietnam war. Like the later film, The Boys in Company C is divided into two parts, with the first section depicting basic training and the second section dramatising life on the battlefield.
Watch out for Lee Ermey, later the drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket.
Tyrone Washington
Stan Shaw Billy Ray Pike
Andrew Stevens Alvin Foster
James Canning Vinnie Fazio
Michael Lembeck Dave Bisbee
Craig Wasson Captain Collins
Scott Hylands Lieutenant Archer
James Whitmore Jr Sergeant Curry
Noble Willingham Sergeant Loyce
R Lee Ermey
Director
Sidney J Furie
Related Posts
Birdy (1984) Al Columbato (Nicolas Cage) and Birdy (Matthew Modine) became friends in high school amongst the slums of South Philadelphia despite…
Boys' Night Out (1962) The "boys" in this first film to come from Kim Novak's own production company are George, Doug, Howie and Fred,…
Big Beat, The (1958) Fresh out of college, John Randall (William Reynolds) tries to persuade his father - the owner of a conservative record…
Coming Home (1978) Coming Home is very much Jane Fonda's project. She commissioned Nancy Dowd to write a story about the impact of…
Blood Oath (1990) Shortly after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour in World War II, Japanese troops captured the Australian garrison on the…
Band of Thieves (1962) Seven of the prisoners at Gaunstone Gaol have been encouraged to take up Trad jazz by a music-mad governor and…
Deer Hunter, The (1978) One of America's first attempts to deal with the Vietnam War on film, Michael Cimino's masterpiece is long and richly…
Biloxi Blues (1988) Number two in Neil Simon's autobiographical play trilogy reached the screen under the direction of Mike Nichols. This one is…
The five new USMC recruits – streetwise drug dealer Tyrone Washington (Stan Shaw), naïve hick Billy Ray Pike (Andrew Stevens), longhaired war protestor Dave Brisbee (Craig Wasson), scheming slacker Vinne Fazio (Michael Lembeck), and would-be war chronicler Alvin Foster (James Canning) – bond during six weeks of harrowing training then encounter pure lunacy in Vietnam once they fall under the command of Captain Collins (Scott Hylands), a gung-ho fool who regularly endangers his men by pursuing pointless missions, Collins earns enmity from all of his subordinates, even his seasoned second-in-command, Lieutenant Archer (James Whitmore, Jr.).
Disheartened by futile combat, appalled by the corruption of their South Vietnamese ally, and constantly endangered by the incompetence of their own company commander, the young men find a possible way out of the war.
