In 1969, a platoon of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, receives five new recruits as replacements: Beletsky; Languilli, soon called Alphabet; Washburn, the only African-American of the replacements; Bienstock; and Galvan. At the same time, platoon Sergeant First Class Worcester is breaking in a new commander, Lieutenant Eden.

The five privates are assigned to 3rd Squad, under battle-weary squad leader, Staff Sgt. Adam Frantz. Frantz gives them a crash-course in battlefield skills, punctuated by having a Viet Cong deserter silently penetrate a barbed wire barrier and aim a rocket launcher at them.

The platoon's specialists include the machine gun team of Duffy and Gaigin, along with African-American veterans Motown, Doc and Sgt. McDaniel (who has less than a month left on his tour). The latter three often talk of their first-hand knowledge of the racial discrimination still practiced in the army.

The new arrivals get their first, sudden taste of war when a quiet spell beside a river is interrupted by an enemy mortar bombardment, during which replacement Galvan is decapitated by a bomb splinter. The death of a soldier further riles up Frantz.

The platoon is air-lifted into the A Sầu Valley for a major operation. Shortly after disembarking at the landing zone, they find themselves in a firefight, during which McDaniel is killed. This loss provokes considerable bitterness and tension from Doc, who blames Frantz for not getting the short-timer McDaniel a less dangerous assignment.

The platoon is part of the battalion's assault on Hill 937, which soon grows into the Battle of Hamburger Hill when unexpectedly determined resistance is encountered. With the NVA defending well-entrenched positions, the platoon is forced to attack the hill repeatedly against stubborn opposition. Between assaults, US air-strikes steadily strip away all vegetation, leaving the hill a barren, scorched wasteland. In one assault, a battle-crazed and wounded Duffy, wielding an M60 machine gun, seems on the verge of carrying the day as enemy resistance begins to crumble. However, botched air support by helicopter gunships causes several friendly casualties, including Duffy.

In between attacks, the shrinking platoon tries to rest, chattering about social upheaval and unrest back home. Bienstock is devastated by a letter from his girlfriend, whose college friends have told her that it is immoral to remain with a soldier. Beletsky gets a cassette tape from his girlfriend, and Frantz is moved that she mentions his name. Worcester describes to his comrades the alienation and hostility from anti-war college students, and the breakdown of his marriage, on his return from a previous tour of duty. He tells of a good friend, whose son had been killed in Vietnam during the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang, who receives cruel phone calls gloating over his son's death.

On day seven, returning downhill from their ninth assault, Frantz has a confrontation with a TV reporter, telling him that he has more respect for the NVA on the hill than for the reporter.

The exhausted platoon continues the attempt to capture Hill 937. During the tenth assault, in torrential rain, Gaigin is killed while Beletsky and Doc are wounded. Doc tells Frantz and Motown to capture the hill so that they will at least have something to be proud of, then succumbs to his wounds moments before a medevac helicopter lands. Beletsky, despite having received a "million dollar wound," decides to return to his unit.

The eleventh and final assault is mounted by the remaining troops, whose bitterness and exhaustion is overcome by desperation and unit pride. The final enemy positions are overrun but the cost is heavy. Lieutenant Eden loses his right arm, while Murphy, Worcester, Motown, Bienstock and Languilli are killed. Frantz, stunned by the loss of so many friends, is dazed and wounded by an enemy bayonet. Beletsky, also wounded but enraged, leads the final push to the summit. At the summit, the bleeding and exhausted Frantz, Washburn and Beletsky sit together in the dirt, as the battlefield finally goes silent.

The movie epilogue is a poem by Major Michael Davis O'Donnell, January 1, 1970, Dak To, Vietnam which reads as follows: "If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may not have always. Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind."

The novelized version of the film, written by William Pelfrey, based on the screenplay by James Carabatsos, featured several additional scenes not featured in the final cut of the film. These included prologue and epilogue scenes set years after the war where Frantz, now a civilian and happily married with children, visits the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. and asks his young son to plant a small flag below Languilli's name. Another additional scene occurs one night between the assaults on Hill 937, where the North Vietnamese Army launch a surprise counterattack.^[1]

NOTE: Listed in order of authority and rank. The green color coded boxes in the rows indicate that character survived the battle. The pink colored boxes indicate the character either died or was wounded. Actors and roles as credited onscreen.

Producer Marcia Nasatir had a son who fought as a soldier in Vietnam, which is one of the reasons why she came up with the idea for the film. Writer and co-producer James Carabatsos had served with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1968–69 and spent five years interviewing soldiers involved in the combat there and researching the Battle of Hamburger Hill. Irvin, an English-born filmmaker, worked on several documentaries in Vietnam in 1969.^[2]

The film was produced independently, with the money being raised through foreign sales.^[3] According to Irvin, Paramount passed on Hamburger Hill when they initially pitched it, but they picked it up when the film was finally shot in the Philippines.^[3]

In a 2021 interview John Irvin said that Hamburger Hill could have been released before Platoon and Full Metal Jacket "if Paramount had been a bit braver". Because Vietnam was not considered a popular subject, Paramount wanted to see how Platoon performed at the box office. According to Irvin, Hamburger Hill was again pushed back when Stanley Kubrick pushed for Full Metal Jacket to be released before Hamburger Hill.^[3]

Critical response edit

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 12 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10.^[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[5]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times called Hamburger Hill a "well-made Vietnam War film that narrows its attention to the men of a single platoon in a specific operation". Differentiating the film from Platoon, released the year before, he noted the film "refuses to put its characters and events into any larger frame. It could have been made a week after the conclusion of the operation it recalls, which is both its strength and weakness, depending on how you look at it".^[6] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post credited the filmmakers for creating a "deeply affecting, highly accomplished film", but felt that "[Carabatsos] and his collaborators seem to feel compelled not only to show us their war, but tell us what we're to think about it", weakening the film's effect and keeping it from being a "great war movie".^[2]

Box office edit

In the United States and Canada, Hamburger Hill grossed $13.8 million at the box office.^[7] It opened at No. 4 for its first weekend, spending its first three weeks in the Top 10 at the box office.^[8]

• Hamburger Hill at IMDb