THE GREEN BERETS

John Wayne's right-wing attempt at patriotic filmmaking during the Vietnam war can be seen in "The Green Berets," now available on DVD. It's so blundtly one-sided and simple-minded that it makes Frank Capra's Why We Fight documentaries seem liberal. Although it was previously available on laser, everything is better defined now. The location photography often has dark settings, and its to the format's credit, that minute detail is still captured. Wayne actually proved he wasn't a horrible director with his overblown, overlong, but still captivating "The Alamo." "The Green Berets" is shorter, tighter, and for all its corniness,  entertainingly horrible. Unlike his work in "The Alamo", Director Wayne rarely utilizes the anamorphic ratio to its advantage, so it's surprising that WARNER BROS didn't opt to offer the P&S version to consumers. Their reasoning may be related to the fact that at 142 mins, the film is displayed over two sides instead of using dual layers on one side, as MGM typically does. It's also disappointing that Wayne didn't utilize 6-track surround as he did with "The Alamo," still the monaural sound suffices, and to be honest, the Green Berets theme song wouldn't benefit from any amount of mixing.