Revealing mistake: Except for the one that crashes, every single helicopter in this film is 100% factory fresh, brand new - no mud spatters, no scratched paint, not a dent or a blemish anywhere. They look like they just rolled off the production line. Strange that, on the front line in a war zone and all.
Green Berets (1968)
1 revealing mistake
Directed by: John Wayne, Ray Kellogg
Starring: John Wayne, David Janssen, Jim Hutton, Aldo Ray
Factual error: The final scene of the movie has Col. Kirby and the little Vietnamese boy supposedly on the beach at Da Nang, Vietnam. Kirby is saying, "The future of 'nam is you, kid", and the camera pans out to the sea and the sun is going down. The sun's sinking in the east...
Suggested correction: Nowhere in the film are we told where in Vietnam the Green Beret base is, just that it is in South Vietnam (of course). South Vietnam has a Western coast, along the Gulf of Thailand, along which anyone can watch the sun set over the sea.
Around the 18:00 - 18:30 mark a character welcomes John Wayne to Da Nang. This base is returned to throughout the film, including the infamous sun setting in the east scene. Da Nang's beaches face to the Northeast. Only when you get south of Nha Trang does the Vietnamese coast begin to offer a south to southwest horizon on the ocean.
Trivia: David Jassen's nickname around the set was "Klutzy." He couldn't walk three feet without falling over something.
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