It's fitting that the in the last year of a decade that saw a huge contingent of Vietnam War films and TV series released that we would get the weakest of all of them. "The Iron Triangle" is a very melodramatic and below-par film that is far too concerned with the unsubstantiated claims of the story than it is about making a decent war flick. It's a boring and very stagey looking film, with far too many contrived and overwrought scenes of the Viet Cong (speaking in English) as director Eric Weston was too zealous and absorbed with showing the VC in a humane light. Not that I have any qualms about that, it's just not done particularly well here. It was filmed in Sri Lanka but I honestly thought that it was filmed somewhere in the States, because it looks terrible and not like the jungles of Vietnam at all. So that shows how poorly made it is. If the jungle scenes from the exploitative horror film "Combat Shock", which were filmed in a yard in Staten Island, look more the real thing. The film purports to be based on the diary of an unknown VC soldier during the war (Yes, that old card) and during a particularly gruelling campaign in an area known as the Iron Triangle, a US officer is captured and the rest of the story pits one young VC soldier in a battle with his sense of duty and loyalty as he tries to help the American.
I found very little to enjoy here. It had all the look of a dodgy soap opera, and there wasn't enough on-the-ground action that you would think a film like this should have. The parts with the ex-Legionnaire and the Vietnamese woman he was protecting were extremely distracting and stupid, and these led to scenes like something you would see in a low-budget espionage thriller. They were not suited for here and it further watered down any chance this had to be credited as a strong war film. The action is poor and the acting even worse. The actors were trying too hard and Weston can't seem to direct at all. Imagine a poor man's "Missing in Action", if you can, mixed in with the melodrama of certain episodes of the brilliant TV series "Tour of Duty" and you might get an idea of what "The Iron Triangle" is about. I feel uncomfortable even mentioning the brilliant and classic "Tour of Duty" in the same breath as this film, but for the undeniable soapy feel of certain parts of the show, "The Iron Triangle" ramps them up tenfold, and is annoying as hell.
I found very little to enjoy here. It had all the look of a dodgy soap opera, and there wasn't enough on-the-ground action that you would think a film like this should have. The parts with the ex-Legionnaire and the Vietnamese woman he was protecting were extremely distracting and stupid, and these led to scenes like something you would see in a low-budget espionage thriller. They were not suited for here and it further watered down any chance this had to be credited as a strong war film. The action is poor and the acting even worse. The actors were trying too hard and Weston can't seem to direct at all. Imagine a poor man's "Missing in Action", if you can, mixed in with the melodrama of certain episodes of the brilliant TV series "Tour of Duty" and you might get an idea of what "The Iron Triangle" is about. I feel uncomfortable even mentioning the brilliant and classic "Tour of Duty" in the same breath as this film, but for the undeniable soapy feel of certain parts of the show, "The Iron Triangle" ramps them up tenfold, and is annoying as hell.