The Green Berets (USA 1968) Directed by John Wayne and Ray Kellogg Soundtrack by Miklós Rózsa Tip: www.youtube.com The Green Berets is a 1968 film featuring John Wayne, George Takei, David Janssen, Jim Hutton and Aldo Ray, nominally based on the eponymous 1965 book by Robin Moore, though the screenplay has little relation to the book. Unlike most war films, the movie polarized public opinion to this day. Thematically, The Green Berets is strongly anti-communist and pro-Saigon. It was produced in 1968, at the height of American involvement in the Vietnam War, the same year as the Tet offensive against the largest cities in South Vietnam. John Wayne was prompted by the anti-war atmosphere and social discontent in the US to make this film in countering that. He requested and obtained full military co-operation and materiel from President Johnson. Columbia Pictures, (who had bought the book's pre-publication film rights) was not able to produce a script that was approved by the Army whilst producer David L. Wolper, who also tried to buy the same rights, could not obtain finance for filming. John Wayne had always been a steadfast supporter of American involvement in the war in Vietnam. He had entertained the soldiers in Vietnam, and wanted The Green Berets to be a tribute to them. He co-directed the film, and turned down the "Major Reisman" role in The Dirty Dozen to do so. The film's first scene illustrates that contention when Green Beret tour guides at Fort Benning, Georgia ...