Ten Best Vietnam War Movie Characters

Vietnam War movies are legion in Hollywood. Here are ten unforgettable Vietnam War movie characters and the actors who brought them to the silver screen. "And it's one, two, three/What are we fighting for?/Don't ask me, I don't give a damn/Next stop is Vietnam" - Country Joe and The Fish, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" (1967)

Robert Duvall as Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore, Apocalypse Now (United Artists, 1979)

Robert Duvall plays Army Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore, the fearless commander of an Air Cavalry unit during the Vietnam War. Kilgore loves surfing, taking a stretch of beach from Victor Charley (that's the enemy, folks) so California surfing legend Lance Johnson (Sam Bottoms) can hang ten, baby. Kilgore hits the enemy full force with his attack helicopters while blaring Richard Wagner's operatic "The Ride of the Valkyries" from loudspeakers. Duvall, who earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, cops one of the classic lines in movie history, eloquently delivered following a U.S. fighter jet strike in the jungle: "Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning...The smell, you know that gasoline smell…It smells like – victory."

Robert Duvall as Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore with Sam Bottoms in Apocalypse Now (1979) - United Artists

R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, Full Metal Jacket (Warner Bros., 1987)

R. Lee Ermey plays Marine Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, a loud, vicious, obscene drill instructor at Parris Island, South Carolina, Marine Corps Recruit Depot during the Vietnam War. What comes out of DI Hartman's filthy mouth is the scatological stuff of movie legend, as he bosses and bullies his hapless recruits with seemingly non-stop vulgarity. Ermey, who had actually served in the United States Marine Corps for 11 years, rising to the rank of staff sergeant and pulling a 14-month tour of duty in Vietnam, had initially been hired as a consultant. But when the ex-marine made a demonstration videotape, mouthing an array of obscenities and insults non-stop for 15 minutes while being pelted with tennis balls and oranges, director Stanley Kubrick decided to sign him as Hartman. "I'm Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your senior drill instructor, from now on you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and the last word out of your filthy sewers will be 'Sir'. Do you maggots understand that?" Hartman addresses his new recruits in one of his more tamer soliloquies. Hartman is later executed by one of his own recruits, the emotionally unstable Pvt. Lawrence Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio). Was anyone surprised? Sir, no, sir!

R. Lee Ermey as Sergeant Hartman leading his crotch-grabbing recruits in Full Metal Jacket (1987) - Warner Bros.

Robert De Niro as Staff Sergeant Michael Vronsky, The Deer Hunter (Universal, 1978)

Robert De Niro plays Michael Vronsky, who with his two Pennsylvania hometown buddies Nick (Christopher Walken) and Stevie (John Savage) ship out to the Vietnam War as members of the U.S. Army. The three are later captured by the Viet Cong, who force them to play Russian roulette while wagers are made on the outcome. Sgt. Vronsky convinces their captors to let them play with three bullets in the pistol's chamber, moving quickly in one sequence to deliver three shots to the heads of their VC antagonists. De Niro, who earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, later said that The Deer Hunter was the most physically exhausting movie of his career. Both De Niro and John Savage performed their own stunts in the helicopter river scene, dropping 30 feet into the water 15 times in two days.

Robert De Niro as Michael Vronsky in The Deer Hunter (1978) - Universal Pictures

Tom Berenger as Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes, Platoon (Orion, 1986)

Tom Berenger plays Army Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes, a brutal, callous non-com who leads his charges in Vietnam. Barnes is the evil counterpart to the compassionate Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe), with the two often locking horns. At a Vietnamese village, Barnes shoots a defiant woman whom he believes is hiding the Viet Cong, threatening to kill the woman's screaming daughter next if the villagers don't reveal the whereabouts of the enemy. Restrained by Sgt. Elias, Barnes backs off, but later kills Elias, delivering three shots to his chest during a battle with the North Vietnamese. Barnes, however, later winds up on the wrong side of an M16 himself, when Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) avenges Elias' murder. Both Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe earned Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

Tom Berenger as Sergeant Barnes in Platoon (1986) - Orion Pictures

Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard, Apocalypse Now (United Artists, 1979)

Martin Sheen plays Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard, an assassin attached to the 505th Battalion, 173rd Airborne, SOG (Special Operations Group) in Vietnam. General Corman (G.D. Spradlin) gives Willard his next assignment, the elimination of renegade Green Beret Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who is leading his own army of adoring Montagnard tribesmen in Cambodia. Willard heads up river in a U.S. Navy PBR boat where he experiences the madness of the Vietnam War, including a surfing-obsessed colonel (Robert Duvall), a USO show-turned-riot, a hopped-up American photojournalist (Dennis Hopper) and the insane, murderous Colonel Kurtz himself. "Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission. And for my sins they gave me one," Sheen's Captain Willard intones at the beginning of the film.

Martin Sheen as Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now (1979) - United Artists

Tom Cruise as Ron Kovic, Born on the Fourth of July (Universal, 1989)

Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic, the real-life ex-marine who did two tours of duty in Vietnam, returning home from the second paralyzed from the chest down after being hit while leading an attack on a village north of the Cua Viet River. Cruise delivers the performance of a lifetime, playing the idealistic Kovic who heeds President Kennedy's call to service and enlists in the Marine Corps. But following his combat service and grave wounding in Vietnam, Kovic changes, becoming an outspoken critic of the war. Tom Cruise earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in this searing film directed by Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone. " Sometimes, Stevie, I think people, they know you're back from Vietnam, and their face – changes: the eyes, the voice, the way they look at you, you know," Kovic tells his friend Steve Boyer (Jerry Levine).  

Tom Cruise as Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July (1989) - Universal Pictures

Mel Gibson as Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, We Were Solders (Paramount, 2002)

Mel Gibson portrays Army Lt. Colonel Hal Moore, the real-life 7th Cavalry Regiment commander whose outnumbered American forces fought the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965, one of the first major engagements of the Vietnam War. Gibson's performance as the hard-nosed, yet compassionate Moore is one of the best of his career in what is unarguably one of the bloodiest war films ever produced. "Oh, yes, and one more thing, dear Lord, about our enemies, ignore their heathen prayers and help us blow those little bastards straight to hell. Amen," Moore prays before shipping out to 'Nam.  

Mel Gibson as Hal Moore in We Were Soldiers (2002) - Paramount Pictures

Andrew Stevens as Billy Ray Pike, The Boys in Company C (Columbia, 1978)

Andrew Stevens is Billy Ray Pike, who with four other recruits played by Stan Shaw, James Canning, Michael Lembeck and Craig Wasson make it through Marine boot camp in 1967. Shipped to Vietnam, the four young marines quickly become disillusioned with the war, which is marked by futile battles, an incompetent company commander and the outright corruption of their South Vietnamese allies. A soccer match near the end of the film – which is rudely and violently interrupted by a Viet Cong attack – is effectively used to illustrate the inanity of the war. 

One sheet movie poster: The Boys in Company C (1978) - Heritage Auction Galleries

Sylvester Stallone as John J. Rambo, First Blood (Orion, 1982)

Sylvester Stallone plays John Rambo in this first entry in the Rambo series. Rambo is a Vietnam vet and Medal of Honor winner who is harassed by Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) and his deputies in a small town called Hope in the Great Northwest. Obviously suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, Rambo breaks free of his captors following his arrest for vagrancy and hightails it into the woods. Once a member of an elite Special Forces unit in Vietnam commanded by Colonel Samuel Trautman ( Richard Crenna), Rambo proceeds to conduct his own private war against Sheriff Teasle, local and state law enforcement and the National Guard. Admittedly, the Rambo character is a bit cartoonish, particularly in the subsequent Rambo sequels, but First Blood constitutes a first-rate action picture where the one-man killing machine is not quickly forgotten. "I could have killed 'em all, I could kill you. In town you're the law, out here it's me. Don't push it. Don't push it or I'll give you a war you won't believe. Let it go. Let it go," Rambo warns Teasle after disposing of several of his deputies.

Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo with Brian Dennehy in First Blood (1982) - Orion Pictures

Burt Lancaster as Major Asa Barker, Go Tell the Spartans (Avco Embassy, 1978)

Burt Lancaster plays Major Asa Barker, who commands a small band of American military advisors attached to a South Vietnamese unit during the early years of the Vietnam War in 1964. Barker is tasked with the impossible from General Harnitz (Dolph Sweet), defending an outpost named Muc Wa from an overwhelming enemy force. Barker, along with his troops, make a valiant stand, but the major and a number of his soldiers do not survive the ferocious battle. Lancaster delivers an excellent performance as Barker, the aging, skeptical career Army officer passed up for promotion who winds up in Vietnam, becoming one of the war's earliest casualties.

Burt Lancaster as Major Asa Barker in Go Tell the Spartans (1978) - Avco Embassy Pictures

Ten More Memorable Vietnam War Movie Characters

• Stan Shaw as Tyrone Washington, The Boys in Company C (1978)
• Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, Apocalypse Now (1979)
• Matthew Modine as James T. "Joker" Davis, Full Metal Jacket (1987)
• James Caan as Sergeant First Class Clell Hazard, Gardens of Stone (1987)
• Bill Paxton as John Paul Vann, A Bright Shining Lie (1988)
• Sean Penn as Sergeant Tony Meserve, Casualties of War (1989)
• Jon Voight as Luke Martin, Coming Home (1978)
• John Wayne as Colonel Mike Kirby, The Green Berets (1968)
• Courtney B. Vance as Specialist Abraham "Doc" Johnson, Hamburger Hill (1987) 
• Wings Hauser as Corporal Joseph L. DiNardo, The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1989)

Matthew Modine as "Joker" Davis in Full Metal Jacket (1987) - Warner Bros.

Top Image

• Robert De Niro as Sergeant Michael Vronsky in The Deer Hunter (1978) - Universal Pictures