The Green Berets (1968)

That is a great photo from the movie, do you own the card?

Chester

Here's a pic of the theater poster -

Keith,

It is a little unusual. This is one that Les Adams, from Abilene, Texas shared with us.

Chester

Believe it or not this John Wayne war film is the one I find most entertaining and feel to be his one of his best War films. It's a shame though that he didn't make another war film in the 70's.

Green Berets is a great action movie despite what critics think (do they think???)

This point was proved at box office and with viewwing figures everytime it is shown!!


Mike

We all know that critics don't think, cause if they did more people who deserved the awards would have gotten them.

This is one of my favorite Duke films, also.
Cheers - Jay

I am glad to see that I am not the only one who likes it a lot.

Before I retired, a gentleman who was in the army and stationed at Ft. Bragg during the making of "The Green Berets", told me about being an extra in the movie. He gave me a couple of prints of photos he had made that were taken with him and Duke in informal poses. They are both dressed up in their uniforms for the movie and the background is the building at the site of the big battle.
Cheers - Jay

My Grandad was an extra in the movie.... unfortunately he has no screen time

Lauri Törni alias Larry Thorn on whom Kirby's character was based had an unusual life. He was a captain in the Finnish army during the wars against the Soviet Union (WW2 for the rest of the world). He couldn't live with the peace treaty made and moved to Germany in 1945 (when Finland was no more an ally of Germany) to get advanced saboteur training. He was captured by Brits, and then by Finns and spent several years in jail. After release, he moved to South America and then to the North, as an illegal immigrant, but worked his way to a resident and even US army officer. He died in Vietnam, and his remains were actually found in 1999.

That's interesting, thank you for sharing that piece of information.

Quote from etsija

Lauri Törni alias Larry Thorn on whom Kirby's character was based had an unusual life. He was a captain in the Finnish army during the wars against the Soviet Union (WW2 for the rest of the world). He couldn't live with the peace treaty made and moved to Germany in 1945 (when Finland was no more an ally of Germany) to get advanced saboteur training. He was captured by Brits, and then by Finns and spent several years in jail. After release, he moved to South America and then to the North, as an illegal immigrant, but worked his way to a resident and even US army officer. He died in Vietnam, and his remains were actually found in 1999.

So, were any of the storylines in the movie based on actual events that Thorn was involved in?

Quote from SXViper

So, were any of the storylines in the movie based on actual events that Thorn was involved in?

I actually found a site that has all the information anybody might want about him. He sounded like a incredible man. Check it out!!!

http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/t/t375.htm

Awesome! thanks for the link.

I found this much: On his first detachment Thorne was based in Chau Lang and Tinh Bien, in southern Vietnam, in the region of “Seven mountains”. He returned to Vietnam in December 1964 and was based in Phuoc Vinh, the island of Phu Quocin and Nha Trang. He died in a helicopter accident when taking part in ”Shining Brass” operation, October 1965. I forget if any of these places is mentioned in Green Berets, but I don’t believe there’s much left of his character; I haven’t read Robin Moore’s (who met Thorne in Tinh Bien) book, but I understand it is almost completely rewritten for the movie. What I’ve read about Thorne, he seems have been a fearless soldier who enjoyed war, and far less nice fellow than Col. Kirby

The new DVD is the exact same one that was released a while back, just new packaging. Damn flipper...

Makes you wonder why it has to be on a 2 sided disc. Other longer movies can be put on a 1 sided disc. No extras either