The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1989)

This is another one of those that I had been meaning to do for a long time, and as I was looking at Don "The Dragon" Wilson's filmography to see what else we could review, this one came up on IMDb, and it was on Prime, so I figured I'd give it a shot--not to mention, it features DTVC Hall of Famer and Wings Hauser, whom we haven't seen in a long time either, so it moved to the top of the list. This has also been covered by Ty and Brett at Comeuppance, Will at Exploding Helicopter, Mitch at the Video Vacuum, Jack at When the Vietnam War Raged... in the Philippines, and Ninja Dixon, so you can check out their sites to see what they thought as well.

The Siege of Firebase Gloria features R. Lee Emery as a sergeant leading his men in Vietnam, only to discover that the Viet Cong are planning a big move. He gets his men as far as Firebase Gloria, which is undermanned and under-supplied. Among his men is his second in command, Di Nardo (Hauser), who is a great soldier but is also cracking a bit due to the stress of war. Emery's going to need everything, including a Wings at 100%, if this small firebase is going to hold off looming the attacks from the Viet Cong.

This was a good one. Not your standard 'Namsploitation of huts exploding and Reb Brown screaming; but also not your Full Metal Jacket or Platoon examination of the war and the people in it. This is just a bloody fight for survival, kill or be killed, it's either him or me. Gory, action packed, not pulling any punches, just getting after it for 90 minutes and not letting up. The other thing is, while this is DTV and done on a budget by exploitation master Brian Trenchard-Smith, it feels closer to its cinematic counterparts than your usual Japanese VHS 'Namspoiltation shot in the Philippines that we're used to seeing. If you haven't seen this one yet, it's definitely worth checking out.

This is my first Wings Hauser flick since I've come back from hiatus, so shame on me. I do think to some extent absence has made the heart grow fonder, because, between this and a few other Wings flicks I've watched recently, I realize why I enjoy his work so much and why he was an inaugural Hall of Famer. Beyond the fact that he's invested in this role and is really digging in to play this part, I saw on IMDb that he said, as an actor who grew up in Hollywood, he was more about the entertainment part of acting than the craft part that New York actors tended to get hung up on. You definitely get that here, as much as he's giving us the stern, dramatic aspects, he's also wanting us to be entertained, which makes this work on a different level. In "An Oral History of PM Entertainment" from Joe Yanick for Hopes & Fears magazine, Kathleen Kinmont said Wings was a Vietnam vet. I couldn't find that anywhere in his bio, but he does have a huge gap in his filmography between 1967 and 1975, so it would make sense. If that's the case, you could tell he drew on that to round out this performance. I know, whenever I do a review of someone who I haven't reviewed in a while, I say I'll make sure I get more of their stuff up, but there's a lot more Wings out there to get to, so hopefully we'll make it happen.

Speaking of authenticity, R. Lee Emery definitely has that. You almost get the sense that he's not acting when he does these roles, which may be the case, but still, to do it on camera takes a special talent. It's like Tony Sirico playing mob guys, yes, he has that experience, but he's also an actor who can draw on that to make something compelling onscreen. If it was just having been in the military that would make Emery work in these roles, all the Navy Seals movies that use real Navy Seals would work, which isn't the case. Emery was able to take that experience and make a movie like this work better because of his acting talent, which he coupled with his military experience.

I learned a big lesson from watching this: I don't always pay attention to the movies I review as well as I should. I totally missed the helicopter explosion, and had to go back to Exploding Helicopter's review to find out where it was, then go back in the movie and see it. It turned out I had seen it, but it didn't register because I was either playing around on my phone or looking at something else. It's embarrassing, and probably something I shouldn't be admitting here, but this is the modern age, where kids post videos on YouTube saying all kinds of personal things, so why not expose my own flaws as a human with the readers of this post?

We're onto the seventh paragraph, and this may be the latest I've ever brought up a DTVC Hall of Famer before, but that's because I also missed Don "The Dragon" Wilson's small part in this. I went back through a few areas where I thought he might be, but didn't see him. IMDb says he's in it as "Donald Wilson," so I'm taking their word for it and tagging him, which is now 33 for him--still a ways out from the 40 Club, but on his way for sure. When I looked at the other sites I listed above who had reviewed this, none of them mentioned Wilson either, so maybe I wasn't the only one who missed it. It's because I missed it though that I put Wilson's paragraph at the bottom. This may also be the first time a DTVC Hall of Famer got a tag for a role that I totally missed in watching it.

With that, it's time to wrap this up. You can get this on Prime as of my writing, which I think is a great way to make this happen. 90+ minutes of blood and guts kill or be killed military action. We always applaud movies when they get after it on here, and this one definitely does that.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098328