Hamburger Hill

Hamburger Hill is a 1987 American war film about the actual assault of the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division ‘Screaming Eagles’, on a well-fortified position, including trenchworks and bunkers, of the North Vietnamese Army on Ap Bia Mountain near the Laotian border.

American military records of the battle refer to the mountain as ‘Hill 937’, its map designation having been derived from its being 937 meters high.

A fictionalised and highly realistic account of the battle to secure Hill 937 (aka Hamburger Hill), an objective which resulted in one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Vietnam War. Focusing on the exploits of 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon, Bravo Company of the 101st Airborne Division, it shows the extreme duress suffered by the soldiers involved, as they do their best to win a pointless prize in a war being fought without popular support and which – like the attempt to secure the hill itself – is destined to end in failure.

Critic Reviews:

• " There are a couple of rocky moments, but the large cast of unknowns go through hell convincingly, and illustrate the randomness of mortality. " – Derek Adams

• " A well-made Vietnam War film that narrows its attention to the men of a single platoon in a specific operation. " – Vincent Canby

• " This is a film about the futility of war expressed in the simplest terms. " – Film4