Low budget docu with a few gems
catinat flaneur | germany | 07/11/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Ed Rasen did it again. And gave us another Vietnam war low budget documentary, after the well put together collection "We were Heroes" and the not so good "Secrets of the Vietnam war". What do we get with "Fighting Forces Vietnam"? The vital statistics are such: 11 (eleven!) hours film on five DVDs, about 95 percent of them original footage, handsome metal box, booklet with photos and VN war chronology.
Ed Rasen presents the military units and outfits which participated in the vn war. Mostly if not exclusively he relies on features from "The Big Picture" and seemingly from newsreel which seem to have been put together back then for a military audience. Since most of the Big Picture features presented here have ben available in numerous othre editions, the newsreel segments are the real finds in this collection. And they sure make You hope that Ed Rasen descends into the movie vaults again to unearth some more of it. The technical quality varies, but mostly it is mediocre which of course is mostly due to the condition of the original material. All things considered it is a 3 out of 5 because at a price like this there is not much You can do wrong"