84C MoPic (1989)
Sometimes called 84 Charlie MoPic, 84C MoPic came out in 1989. This mock documentary followed a cameraman assigned to a Vietnam War LRRP team. It might be one of the oldest “found footage” films out there, but it is totally accurate. From the faulty weaponry to the radio communication to the language they used, everything was historically correct. An American Iraq War vet said that it was great since “there are no distracting subplots, only the immediate fight for survival.” What we can learn from this is that independent films can be even more accurate than big projects.
84C MoPic (1989)
Hamburger Hill (1987)
There is a reason Hamburger Hill does not get a lot of attention. It came out only nine months after Platoon did and got overshadowed by Full Metal Jacket, which was released a month after it. Even though it did not get a lot of media attention, it accurately showed the daily life of an average war platoon. Instead of putting it into a bigger frame, the movie simply showed us what the day-to-day is like. They were able to perfect the “grunt slang” so much that they needed to add subtitles. A historian also said that the battle scenes were “as close as you could ask for.”
Hamburger Hill (1987)
