10 Forrest Gump, 1994

The history of the United States from the 1950s to the ’70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.

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9 Birdy, 1984

After two friends return home from the Vietnam War one becomes mentally unstable and obsesses with becoming a bird.

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8 Casualties of War, 1989

During the Vietnam war, a girl is taken from her village by five American soldiers. Four of the soldiers rape her, but the fifth refuses. The young girl is killed. The fifth soldier is determined that justice will be done. The film is more about the realities of war, rather than this single event.

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7 Good Morning, Vietnam, 1987

A new Disc Jockey is shipped from Crete to Vietnam to bring humor to Armed Forces Radio. He turns the studio on its ear and becomes wildly popular with the troops but runs afoul of the middle management who think he isn’t G.I. enough. While he is off the air, he tries to meet the Vietnamese, especially girls, and begins to have brushes with the real war that never appears on the radio.

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6 First Blood, 1982

John Rambo is a disoriented Vietnam Vet. He is hitchhiking from town to town to see friends from the war. A sheriff tries to make him leave town and when he refuses, arrests him for vagrancy. While in jail, a deputy takes delight in abusing him. Rambo escapes showing his old Vietnam fighting skills and takes to the woods as the sheriff and deputies try and find him in his element. Things get out of hand as Colonel Trautman, Rambo’s old commander, appears to shed light on the situation.

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5 Born on the Fourth of July, 1989

Based on the true story of Ron Kovic, an idealistic young American proudly enlists during the Vietnam War and returns home a paraplegic. Struggling to overcome drug-addiction and depression, he turns his life around and becomes an outspoken critic of the war.

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4 The Deer Hunter, 1978

Michael, Steven and Nick are young factory workers from Pennsylvania who enlist into the Army to fight in Vietnam. Before they go, Steven marries the pregnant Angela, and their wedding party also serves as the men’s farewell party. After some time and many horrors, the three friends fall in the hands of the Vietcong and are brought to a prison camp in which they are forced to play Russian roulette against each other. Michael makes it possible for them to escape, but they soon get separated again.

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3 Full Metal Jacket, 1987

A two-segment look at the effect of the military mindset and war itself on Vietnam era Marines. The first half follows a group of recruits in boot camp under the command of the punishing Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The second half shows one of those recruits, Joker, covering the war as a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, focusing on the Tet offensive.

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2 Platoon, 1986

Chris Taylor leaves his university studies to enlist in combat duty in Vietnam in 1967. Once he’s on the ground in the middle of battle, his idealism fades. Infighting in his unit between Staff Sergeant Barnes, who believes nearby villagers are harboring Viet Cong soldiers, and Sergeant Elias, who has a more sympathetic view of the locals, ends up pitting the soldiers against each other as well as against the enemy.

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1 Apocalypse Now, 1979

The worn out and fatigued U.S Army captain Benjamin L. Willard is sent on a harrowing and surreal mission into the deepest parts of the jungle during the height of the Vietnam War, with the objective of eliminating the rogue Walter E. Kurtz, a Green Beret officer who has completely lost his sanity. Together with a small squad of soldiers, Willard sets out by boat to travel upriver towards Kurtz’ base. But Willard soon eerily realizes that the closer he gets to his target, the more he seems himself in him. Everything could happen on the mission, but one thing is clear; if successful, Willard will not return the same.

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