WAR MOVIE SHORT - White Feather (2013)

There have been many great books about the Vietnam War.  One of my favorites is Marine Sniper by Charles Henderson.  It is the story of the most famous American sniper in the war -  Carlos Hathcock.  Hathcock had 93 confirmed kills in the war.  The film is about his most famous kill.  The title comes from Hathcock’s trademark white feather.  A man of supreme confidence, he wore a white feather in spite of it being easily seen in the greenery of the jungle.  The film was directed by brothers Fernando and Vincente Cordero.  It runs about 23 minutes.

                    The movie opens with a quote from Ernest Hemingway about how the hunting of men, which is basically what snipers do.  It can become addictive.  The movie is set in Vietnam in 1966.  It covers Hathcock’s (Brett Miller) famous mission to assassinate a North Vietnamese general.  To get in position, he has to crawl hundreds of yards through vegetation that includes snakes and other critters.  He does this successfully because he is an expert in camouflage.  It has to be good because the enemy seems to be looking for him.  The film intercuts to Hathcock at home on leave with his wife (Carolyn Zanelli).  Things are tense because Hathcock is a stereotypical warrior who is more in love with his job than with his family. 

                    “White Feather” is a little gem.  It takes a true story and depicts it as well as could be expected for a small budget film.  The Cordero brothers have some game.  They use time-lapse photography of clouds to imply the passage of time. There are enough sniper films for it to almost be a subgenre, but few depict the non-addictive aspects of the job.  Most of those fictional films play up the adrenalin rush of hunting other human beings.  Although the opening quote posits that the movie is about Hathcock’s love of the kill, it is more about the dedication he had.  He was able to crawl for days with bugs and snakes with complete stoicism.  Sniping is attractive to many teenage boys.  This movie shows the less glamorous aspect of it. 

                   

                    The film does have some flaws.  The home front scenes are clicheish.  They tend to emphasize the low budget nature of the acting.  A bit perplexing is the fact that for the mission depicted in the movie, Hathcock does not wear his white feather.  And the movie makes no reference to it.  Only people familiar with Hathcock would get the title.  The movie does a good job on the mission leading up to the pow, but then there is no coverage of the aftermath.  After all, Hathcock also had to get out of the area.

                    Carlos Hathcock deserves a movie about his whole career in Vietnam.  Heck, this story is not even the one I told in class.  He had an even more amazing duel with an enemy sniper that is worth a short film as well.  Are we going to get a sequel, Cordero brothers?

GRADE  =  B