Tour of Duty
Tour of Duty
TV-14 | 24 September 1987 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Reviews
    ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises
    ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!
    Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
    Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
    Paul Magne Haakonsen If you enjoy following stories of the American soldiers who were enlisted for tours of duties in the Vietnam War, then the TV series "Tour of Duty" is definitely a TV series that you should take the time to sit down and watch.Of course this is as much pro-American as you would expect it to be, given the concept and the production. But being able to put that in the background will help you to appreciate the TV series even more.Following a platoon of US soldiers participating in the Vietnam War, "Tour of Duty" is a nice combination of action, character development, drama and war. And what makes "Tour of Duty" work is especially the character gallery, because the characters in the series are detailed, well-fleshed out on the screen and they are characters that you can identify with, one or more of them. And the characters are nicely portrayed by a cast of talented actors.Death is a part of every war, and so it is a part of the series. And there will be deaths of characters that will leave you thinking 'what? seriously?'. But on the fact that they do kill off important characters in the story just adds a very realistic and believable aspect to the series, as it is following a 'heroes never die' recipe.The drama in the series kicks in when there are internal feuds and tensions between the American soldiers, and it adds an element of facing an enemy on two fronts, in a way; the Vietcong and themselves.The camera crew did manage to capture the essence of the jungle warfare, and it feels like the audience is right there alongside with the American soldiers, fighting a losing battle. That was a great accomplishment which really added a solid layer to the TV series."Tour of Duty" is a series that instantly grows on you and wants you to stick around to watch more, because you want to see how the soldiers manage to cope with the tasks givens, the assignments and the Vietnam War as a whole. As such then the creators L. Travis Clark and Steve Duncan managed to put together a very enjoyable TV series.I can warmly recommend "Tour of Duty" if you haven't watched it already.
    Guy TOUR OF DUTY is a Vietnam War show following a single Platoon of US GI's. In the first series they are out in the jungle. In the second series it gets more soap-ish as they end up in Saigon. In the third and final series they end up assisting a Special Forces unit. I have only watched the first series because I couldn't get any further.At heart this show is like COMBAT! A core of characters, a number of redshirts and a different mission every week. The show has some simply superb history behind it with excellent costumes, good sets and historically based situations (often cribbed from memoirs). The grunts even move like grunts. It is also excellent to see the sheer range of story lines. Combined with the statistic that flashes up at the beginning of each show (a different one every week), the show has some real educational quality, covering the gamut of what infantry in Vietnam might see.However because this isn't post-watershed TV the blood is pretty light, the main characters never die or get wounded (or only very, very rarely) and the enemy often verge on the stupid. The lack of threat to the main characters is particularly problematic because it robs a lot of the tension from the series. I'm in two minds about the lack of hard- hitting commentary on Vietnam. Because there can be no drug abuse, no rape, no real representation of the worst horrors of war, it cheapens the series a little. On the other hand the show has a valuable educational purpose and adding all the nasty bits of Vietnam would only prevent kids from being allowed to watch it. There are also a handful of ridiculous plot moments or dreadful attempts at comedy. Yet this show tries its best and deserves respect for that.The actors are generally pretty decent, although the episodic format means that the characters largely remain the same throughout the whole series, with very little development. Contrary to some on here I wouldn't call the cast outstanding. They do a good job, especially for young guys, but they are hardly world class and often verge on the hammy. The youth and lack of fame of the cast does work to their benefit however in adding to the reality of the series.Ultimately the long series length, the episodic structure and the lightness tell against it in this modern world of TV boxsets. Watching an adventure a week on TV was probably pretty fun but trying to watch more than that on DVD is often a little boring as the 80's cheese and lack of change in the characters grates on the viewer.
    captaincretin Not too "Hollywood", great production values except for overuse of stock chopper footage in 2nd series; only spotted one major whopper in the whole series (missed the helmet one though); McCay chucks a grenade of of the Huey then the long shot shows a totally different make of helicopter firing a rocket.Not being a Yank, this show goes a long way to helping me understand what went on and why it left such scars on the American people.It's a pity they haven't learnt a lesson from it though (Iraq)They don't make them like this any more.( Big Brothers Celebrety Get My Out of This Love Island Apprentice )
    Screen-7 "Tour of Duty" still is the best TV series about war ever made for American TV.The mood is perfect, the acting is great and the story lines are interesting. I haven't see it since it originally ran so I can't tell you if it has aged well but I'm guessing it has. Also, I'm not a Vietnam veteran so I can't tell you how accurate it is. I'm guessing they take some serious liberties with reality!It's not a good choice if you've seen all the episodes of MASH or Hogans Heroes and want something similar--- it's a completely different than those.But it perfectly elicits the mixed mood of agitation, melancholy, moral ambiguity yet optimism of the 60s.
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