THE IRON TRIANGLE (1989)

 

                        “The Iron Triangle” is a lower tier Vietnam War movie.  It was directed by a lower tier director – Eric Weston.  What sets it apart from most in the subgenre is it attempts to give both sides.  It purports to be based on the diary of a Viet Cong soldier named Ho (Lem Whatley).  The title refers to “the bloodiest corner of the Ho Chi Minh Trail”.

                        The film opens with a search and destroy mission on a village led by a Capt. Keene (Beau Bridges).  There is a small firefight so we can see two explosions.  Moving through the jungle a sniper (Ho) kills two grunts.  He takes a Thompson off one of them.  Back at camp, a party member named Khoi (Jim Ishida) wants the Thompson.  Their commander Capt. Tuong (Haing Ngor) finds in favor of Ho.  This dynamic is mirrored by Keene’s relationship with an ARVN named Duc who is the torturing prisoners type.  The movie may want to be grey overall, but it is very black and white in its relationships.  The opposing sides come together when Ho captures Keene.  They bond.  They negotiate a peace treaty that ends the war.  Not really.  It’s more predictable than that.  But it does finish with a big set piece combat porn battle.  Someone finds a diary.  “On the other side of the gun was a man, like me.”

                        You have to give “Iron Triangle” some credit for giving both side’s viewpoints, although strangely Keene and Ho do not discuss the war.  The movie does not take a side, it saves good guy/bad guy for the characters.  The characters are stereotypes with the villains being caricatures.  It doesn’t help that the acting is pedestrian.  Bridges appears to be uncomfortable with this soldier thing.  Ngor is wasted in a minor role.  He was only one year older than Bridges, so it is perplexing why he was not given the Ho role.  He should have demanded it because the most interesting character.  He’s no saint, but considering his father was killed by the ARVN as a suspected VC, he has reason to be a killer.  The relationship between Ho and Keene is unoriginal and has been seen many times in war movies.  Enemies bonding is a way to make an anti-war movie with the message that both sides are bad, and good.  This one works fairly well.  The movie intercuts between the two camps.  There is dysfunction in each.  Both sides have ass holes.  The dialogue is not terrible, but the GI slang is faux and the VC talk English.  The movie was not interested in earning cinema cred.  And its audience would not have tolerated it.  The action will satisfy combat junkies.  Junkies who don’t care about realism.  There’s lots of hip-shooting and no reloading.

                        If you are interested in Vietnam War movies, and are planning on watching all of them, you’ll get around to this one.   Maybe you have already and forgot it.  It is forgettable.  That’s a shame for a message movie.

GRADE  =  C-