Directed By:John Irvin
Written By:James Carabatsos
Hamburger Hill
Metascore
Generally Favorable
64
User score
Generally Favorable
7.6
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
64
59% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
35% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
6% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
90
Most of the power of this scrupulously honest memorial isn't in the talk; it's in the terror and the foreignness - the far-from-home-ness - of the imagery. Directed by John Irvin, the film has great decency; it joins together terror and thoughtfulness.
80
Well-produced and directdd with an eye to documentary-like realism and authenticity, pic centers upon a military undertaking of familiar futility during the Vietnam War.
80
As a direct tribute to the dignity of the solider facing attacks on both their bodies and their souls it puts things in a salutary context.
70
There are a couple of rocky moments, but the large cast of unknowns go through hell convincingly, and illustrate the randomness of mortality.
60
Less pretentious than Platoon and more attentive to the Vietnamese than The Deer Hunter, this picture proposes with a great deal of skill and sincerity that we honor and respect the men who suffered on our behalf without even beginning to consider why they did so, or to what effect.
50
It waffles. In the end, it emerges a distinctly pro-soldier, possibly anti-war movie that supports America's overseas doctrine, whether it be right or wrong. One shudders to think what they might create if asked to portray the United States' current role in Central America. Their film certainly wouldn't dare make a statement, bother to educate or entertain. And most importantly, it wouldn't take sides. [29 Aug 1987, p.1D]
25
It don't mean nothin'. [28 Aug 1987]
User score
Generally Favorable
7.6
75% Positive
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
25% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Jun 8, 2026
7
Movie is brutal, With in- your- face carnage battle scenes, Highly gritty and realistic, And it doesn't shy away from depicting racial tensions, Drives home the insanity of going up and down the hill over 10 days, But not as good as Platoon, As the characters didn't really connect with me on a deeper level,
Sep 4, 2019
7
Since it was made around the time that Platoon and Full Metal Jacket were made, Hamburger Hill got buried between the two. It's a really under-appreciated movie that does everything well enough. There's some good character building, a great cast and it came off as rather realistic. My only issue is that there was a kind of disconnect where you didn't really care much about the characters or what they were going through. And that, I feel, is something that prevents it from being anything better than a good movie.
