During the Vietnam War the U.S. Army brass decides to create a special unit called the Tunnel Rats. Their main mission is to clean-up the Viet-Cong network of tunnels found in the Cu-Chi district outside the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon.The tunnels have become a major nuisance for the U.S. Forces stationed around and inside Saigon. From these tunnels the Viet-Cong can launch devastating and unexpected attacks on any nearby American base as well as on Saigon itself.
After the attacks the Viet-Cong forces disappear into the extensive network of tunnels as fast as they appeared, leaving the pursuing Americans empty-handed. The first Tunnel Rats units arrive in the Cu-Chi district in 1968 and they are special-trained to fight hand-to-hand combats underground. They can only rely on a flashlight, a knife and a pistol to try to flush the enemy out. The tunnels, varying in size and length, are booby-trapped with mines and grenades, punji sticks, tripwires, poisonous snakes and enemy.
GoofsThe small American base camp depicted is set in heavy jungle terrain without the ability to see it's own perimeters. This would be fine if this was during WWII in the Pacific, to hide from Japanese aircraft. But in Vietnam the jungle would have been cleared with 'kill zones' in place for camp defenders.
1968 Tunnel Rats is set during the Vietnam War, but is not a typical jungle warfare movie. Boll’s film focuses on an American army platoon that have copped the unenviable task of infiltrating the complex network of underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong to move around undetected and plan clever ambushes.
Outer and inner multiple barbed wire fences would be around the perimeter of the camp. This defensive construction strategy would prevent such a surprise invasion attack as portrayed in the film. I happened on this movie without knowing much about it, and without knowing much about the notorious director (I don't normally watch the type of films he makes). Upon watching the movie, I have to say that it appears to be receiving a lot of spillover hate from his other, more schlocky productions. While not really excellent, you could very easily find a lot of well received war movies that are much worse. Beyond crowd-following hate of director Boll, the film fails to receive any love mainly because it is just flawed enough to alienate those specific and particular constituencies; 'serious' film buffs, and war film fans, that such a film would normally draw.
The film is grim enough to fit into the antiwar genre, but gory enough to vex those who favor a 'serious' film style. The characterization is too favorable to the Vietnamese to lure the jingoistic, but too trite and conventional to draw in the aspirationally sophisticated. Straightforward war film devotees also tend to be very particular about technical details and accuracy, and while most shots look okay by Hollywood standards, many details will irritate the purist.
Some of this is likely due to simple lack of funding; the campsite so different from a Vietnam War era firebase for example, but many details; the Palestinian/Arab neck-scarves instead of Vietnamese ones (the real thing is readily available on Ebay) for example, to mention a flaw not yet noted on IMDb, seem like carelessness. Despite the many flaws however, the overall effect is not nearly as bad as to justify spoof awards, and some of (not all!!!) the acting is actually rather good. At any rate, even if mainstream film goers don't favor this production, collectors of silly and flawed scenes might be interested to note this film as containing, in one (or perhaps more, depending on where you draw the line) of the lessor scenes, a portrayal of Americans/Westerners as can't-hit-a-thing cannon fodder, easily gunned down. Perhaps only so hackneyed a director as Uwe Boll could not only set aside this stereotypical portrayal, but could actually reverse it!