Brian Trenchard-Smith, the Australian wunderkind behind such classics as Escape 2000 (or, if you prefer, Turkey Shoot, Stuntrock and Neon Maniacs, directs this oddball and frequently overlooked Vietnam war film made for Orion Pictures in 1989. If that weren't enough, check out the cast. R. Lee Ermey and Wings Hauser? That should be enough to get any cult movie fan's appetite sufficiently whet.

The storyline revolves around two American soldiers on their tour of duty in 1968: Corporal Joseph Di Nardo (Wings Hauser) and Sergeant Major Bill Hafner (R. Lee Ermey). Their platoon has just barely survived a Vietcong attack and they make their way to Firebase Gloria where they hope to restock on some much needed supplies and lay low for a little while. When they arrive they find out that the man in charge of Gloria isn't nearly as interested in helping out soldiers in need so much as he is in checking out skin-flicks and getting loaded on the taxpayers' dime.

As DiNardo and Hafner start to make plans to take over the firebase and run it properly, Chinese New Year, or ‘Tet' as the Vietcong call it, comes creeping up. It's then that the Vietcong decide that this is all the reason they need to launch an all our offensive on the American base. They plan on taking it out and doing some serious damage to the occupying forces within and as such, all of the soldiers' lives are now in serious jeopardy…

Trenchard-Smith cuts right to the chase with this one: ‘War Is Hell' and he wants you to see it and to feel it and to know it. Ermey, as salty as they come and in full on drill sergeant mode in this picture, owns pretty much every scene that he's in and this is one of those roles he was born to play. He's just as good here as he was in Full Metal Jacket, probably the film he'll wind up being best remembered for. The mighty Wings Hauser (if you've seen Vice Squad then you know just how mighty he can be), however, is pretty much every part his equal. He doesn't go into over the top sleaze-lord territory here like he does in some of his other, more intense roles, but he makes an interesting verbal sparring partner for Ermey. If you can hold your own against Ermey in that department, against elder actor's imposing screen presence, then you're doing something right.

As the soldiers under their command make their way to the base they're forced to commit atrocities that they know they don't want any part of, but the law of survival dictates that they have no choice in the matter. The movie makes sure we understand the repercussions of such actions and while it sticks to the US point of view, this is not a flag waving Green Berets style slice of cinematic patriotism but rather a tough, gritty and wholly involving piece of seemingly very realistic moviemaking. Trenchard-Smith finds the right balance between action and entertainment and rather grounded storytelling techniques.

Although it was made with a relatively low budget compared to other war films, there's no shortage of action on display. Lots of stuff blows up, people are constantly shooting at one another and the production values and action choreography are surprisingly strong for a B-picture. The Siege Of Firebase Gloria is an intense film and it builds to a sufficiently bleak and entirely appropriate conclusion. Check it out if you have any interest in war movies at all, it's a surprisingly excellent film and one well worth seeing.

Video:

The Siege Of Firebase Gloria looks really good on Blu-ray presented by Kino in its proper aspect ratio of 1.85.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer. Colors are very nice and with most of the action taking place outside and in well-lit conditions, they shine through, the lush jungle greens in particular and the oranges of the fire and explosions. Black levels could have been a bit stronger and they sometimes border on dark grey rather than true black, but detail gets a nice uptick compared to the previous MGM MOD/DVD-R release of the film even if it never hits reference quality and is maybe a bit softer than average for the format. The source used looks to have been pretty clean, there's no serious print damage just occasional white specks and one or two noticeable scratches, and there are no obvious issues with noise reduction or edge enhancement.