Let's make it clear : Charlie Bravo is a second or third rate movie. Some characters are sketchy at best, if not bland and hard to distinguish. Photography feels dull, and art direction is bare-bones. If Indochina / Vietnam really looks like this - rainstorm, swamps, infinite jungles, boring inhabitants, empty villages -, there is no understandable reason France or USA ever invaded this country.
And this is clearly the point of the movie : France was wrong (as were/are Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Holland, etc.), colonialism is barbarism and these poor people (the Viet) have the right to defend themselves and their land.
This is why I like this movie. Charlie Bravo shows that soldiers follow orders, and besides that care only about themselves. These infantrymen are out there to rescue some dumb white girl from the Viets, and they will not hesitate to kill both enemy soldiers and innocent villagers that cross their paths. Hell, they even shoot down a Red Cross helicopter refusing to pick one of their wounded, sending everyone on board to their deaths! Of course, these soldiers aren't very brilliant, and they get picked one by one through the jungle... just like Predator, with many Viet instead of an alien. Abandoned by their country, madness finishes the gang, they all go gun-blazing on the enemy, and they finally get what they deserve : death on the field of dishonour.
Even with all this, you still care for these poor bastards, and they get you to believe their murderous reasons... for a moment. If only they had steered clear from their treacherous government and stayed home. If only warmongering USA would finally understand that war on Asian ground is useless and get their boys and girls out of Afghanistan and Irak. These countries are best left alone.
And this is clearly the point of the movie : France was wrong (as were/are Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Holland, etc.), colonialism is barbarism and these poor people (the Viet) have the right to defend themselves and their land.
This is why I like this movie. Charlie Bravo shows that soldiers follow orders, and besides that care only about themselves. These infantrymen are out there to rescue some dumb white girl from the Viets, and they will not hesitate to kill both enemy soldiers and innocent villagers that cross their paths. Hell, they even shoot down a Red Cross helicopter refusing to pick one of their wounded, sending everyone on board to their deaths! Of course, these soldiers aren't very brilliant, and they get picked one by one through the jungle... just like Predator, with many Viet instead of an alien. Abandoned by their country, madness finishes the gang, they all go gun-blazing on the enemy, and they finally get what they deserve : death on the field of dishonour.
Even with all this, you still care for these poor bastards, and they get you to believe their murderous reasons... for a moment. If only they had steered clear from their treacherous government and stayed home. If only warmongering USA would finally understand that war on Asian ground is useless and get their boys and girls out of Afghanistan and Irak. These countries are best left alone.