The Boys in Company C

The Boys in Company C

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Sidney J. Furie
Produced by Andre Morgan
Written by Sidney J. Furie
Rick Natkin
Starring Stan Shaw
Andrew Stevens
R. Lee Ermey
James Whitmore Jr
Scott Hylands
Michael Lembeck
Music by Jaime Mendoza-Nava
Cinematography Godfrey A. Godar
Edited by Frank J. Urioste
Production
company
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
 February 2, 1978
Running time
 125 min.
Country Hong Kong
United States
Language English

The Boys in Company C, directed by Sidney J. Furie, starring Stan Shaw, Andrew Stevens, Craig Wasson, James Canning, and Michael Lembeck, is a 1978 film about United States Marine Corps recruits preparing for duty, and their subsequent combat in the Vietnam War.[1] It was among the first Vietnam War films to appear after the Vietnam Era, and was also the first role for R. Lee Ermey of Full Metal Jacket fame.[2] The Boys in Company C is the first in Furie's Vietnam War motion picture trilogy, followed by 2001's Under Heavy Fire and 2006's The Veteran.

The film was a co-production of Golden Harvest and Columbia Pictures, the latter originally handling theatrical distribution. It was filmed in The Philippines.

Wasson plays guitar and sings the theme song "Here I Am", used within the film and over the end credits.

Plot

[3] This war drama, which prefigures the similarly bifurcated Full Metal Jacket, follows the lives of five young Marine inductees from their boot camp training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in 1967 through a tour of duty in the Vietnam War in 1968.

In August 1967, a group of boys arrive at the USMC induction center. They include draft dodger Dave Brisbee, who is delivered in handcuffs by FBI agents. The other inductees include Tyrone Washington, Billy Ray Pike, Vinnie Fazio, and would-be-writer Alvin Foster. (As with "Joker" in Full Metal Jacket, Foster keeps a journal, and his entries provide the running narrative for the film.)

The five boys go through basic training together. The training is dehumanizing and brutal, designed to make them think and act in unison. They are then shipped to Vietnam; as their ship docks, the shelling begins. Vietnam is a bewildering chaos: bureaucratic incompetence, callous officers concerned only with monthly "body counts," and the constant threat of death. Their first firefight (there are no real battles, just sudden explosions and/or ambushes) occurs while they are bringing "vital supplies" to an army outpost. Those supplies turn out to be crates of cigarettes, liquor, and furniture being sent to a general for his birthday; two men die in the fighting. Indeed, the officers in Company C are mostly idiots who endanger the lives of their men through blind adherence to rules or timetables; their nervous soldiers open fire on anyone and anything at the slightest provocation.

In January 1968, Company C is ordered by their CO to throw a soccer game against a team of South Vietnamese, in order to bolster the morale of their ally. The Americans are told that, if they lose, they will see no more combat; if they win, they will be sent to Khe Sanh. Despite everything, the Americans win. The game ends with a Vietcong attack, during which Foster heroically throws himself on a grenade to save some children. The film concludes with the final entry in his journal: "...I've decided to give up writing this journal, because I don't know who'd believe it after today. We had a chance to go home, and we blew it off for a soccer game...I guess we'll just keep on walking into one bloody mess after another, until somebody figures out that living has got to be more important than winning."

Cast

Nominations

Andrew Stevens was nominate for the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Acting Debut – Male (1979)

Home media

This film has been issued numerous times on video through the decades since its release, first in-house via Columbia Pictures, and later through other companies as certain ancillary rights changed hands (it ended up becoming part of the library of ITC Entertainment). Today, the major rights are with independent film company Fortune Star Media, who also now holds the film's copyright, with distribution by Hen's Tooth under license.

References

  1. ↑ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:The Boys in Company C
  2. ↑ According to Andrew Stevens on the DVD commentary, Ermey was discovered by the director, Furie
  3. ↑ Hyams, Jay. "War Movies" (1984)

External links

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