Line #17 Trivia/TheGreenBerets


1	* BackedByThePentagon: After Creator/JohnWayne bought out Robin Moore, the original author's, share in the production. The Pentagon was trying to prosecute him for revealing classified information.
2	* CaliforniaDoubling: Fort Benning, Georgia, stands in for both Vietnam and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Those soldiers exercising on the field when Kirby calls out to them were real soldiers going through Airborne School (located in Benning) at the time.
3	* CastTheExpert: The colonel who ran the jump school (and who was seen shooting trap with Col. Kirby) was Col. Welch, the real-life jump school commandant and a legendary commander of U.S. paratroopers.
4	* ChannelHop: Originally Creator/UniversalPictures was to produce the film in early 1967. However Universal pulled out due to concerns about the film, so instead it was made by Creator/WarnerBros.
5	* CreatorBacklash: Creator/GeorgeTakei has admitted in interviews that while he was grateful to be cast in this film, he nevertheless strongly disagreed with the film's pro-war message and felt the finished movie was very bad.
6	* DawsonCasting: Most colonels were only in their 30s during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Creator/JohnWayne, playing a colonel, was 60 when this film was made and Bruce Cabot, also playing a colonel, was 63.
7	* DeletedRole: Scenes were filmed with Creator/VeraMiles as Col. Kirby's wife but they were cut before release by the studio. The scene only took one morning to shoot, but the film was considered overlong, and that scene was judged easiest to cut. Batjac, Creator/JohnWayne's company, offered her $10,000 for her work. When she refused that, they then offered her a new car, which she also declined to accept. Wayne made up for this by casting Miles in his next film ''Film/{{Hellfighters}}''.
8	* DoingItForTheArt: Creator/JohnWayne helped to personally bankroll the movie and turned down the role of Major Reisman in ''Film/TheDirtyDozen'' in order to co-direct and star in it. He claimed that his goal was not to make a political film, but a tribute to the courage of the American soldier and Special Forces specifically.
9	* ExecutiveMeddling:
10	** The Pentagon requested edits to the script so that it showed the South Vietnamese as a bigger part of the war effort, and changed the abduction of the North Vietnamese general, which originally featured a cross-border raid into North Vietnam[[note]]Such raids were, of course, happening all the time but they were highly classified.[[/note]].
11	** Creator/JohnWayne wished the screenplay to have more development of the characters, but Warner Bros. made it clear they wanted more action and less talk, as ''Film/TheAlamo1960'' was heavily criticized for having too much dialogue.
12	* FakeNationality: The Vietnamese characters were played by Japanese actors.
13	* HeAlsoDid: Ray Kellogg, who co-directed with Wayne, previously directed ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fodder ''Film/TheKillerShrews'' and ''Film/TheGiantGilaMonster''. Since the film was a very blatant star vehicle and AuthorTract for Wayne, he's often assumed to be its sole director and Kellogg's name is forgotten. Asked by a biographer what Kellogg contributed to the film, Wayne only commented that "without him, my career would not be what it is today."[[note]]There are two main rumors as to Kellogg's exact role -- the first is that he was originally only the second unit director, and made such a big contribution that Wayne had him credited as co-director on the finished product. The second is that the studio made Wayne hire Kellogg as co-director from the get-go, as they were keen to avoid a repeat of the cost and filming overruns that marked Wayne's directorial debut, ''Film/TheAlamo1960''.[[/note]]
14	* HostilityOnTheSet:
15	** Creator/JohnWayne and Aldo Ray did not get along during filming. Ray later spoke disparagingly of Wayne in interviews.
16	** Creator/DavidJanssen had a severe argument with Wayne on the set of the production because Wayne lost his temper on a young Asian actor during the shooting. Janssen left the set, which he never did before in his career.
17	* ReferencedBy: Gets a mention in ''Literature/{{Dispatches}}'', a memoir by the reporter Michael Herr:
18	--> In any other war, they would have made movies about us too, ''Dateline: Hell!'', ''Dispatch from Dong Ha'', maybe even ''A Scrambler to the Front'', about Tim Page, Sean Flynn and Rick Merron, three young photographers who used to ride in and out of combat on Hondas. But Vietnam is awkward, everyone knows how awkward, and if people don't even want to hear about it, you know they're not going to want to sit in the dark and have it brought up. (''The Green Berets'' doesn't count. That wasn't really about Vietnam, it was about Santa Monica).
19	* UncreditedRole: Mervyn [=Le Roy=] said in his biography that he was asked by the producers to come and assist Creator/JohnWayne on the film. [=Le Roy=] accepted on the condition Wayne asks himself. Wayne did and Le Roy came and helped him directing, but refused to have his name in the credits.
20	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
21	** Creator/BruceDern was originally cast as Sergeant Provoiin.
22	** Creator/JohnWayne wanted his friend Music/ElmerBernstein to score the film but Bernstein felt compelled to turn the opportunity down, as he didn't feel it sat well with his politics.

Context Trivia / TheGreenBerets