Well, I finally managed to, um, find a way to watch this in its entirety, and quite frankly its not quite as good as I remembered. But
84 Charlie MoPic is still a decent, little-known (and incredibly hard to come by) film about a squad during the Vietnam war, being "documented" by an army cameraman as they go on patrol in the jungle....
First off, I just have to say this: Brian DePalma should have used this as a reference for his similar but just-plain-awful faux-documentary Redacted. If you're going to do it, do it right.
That being said, there really isn't anything all that spectacular about 84C. The acting is not terrible, but not particularly wonderful either. The only familiar face I recognized was that of a younger Glenn Morshower (Pierce from "24").... Yet despite that shortcoming, somehow this film manages to keep you engaged, and you're able to connect with the characters and feel what they're feeling. And yeah, the "short" jokes get a little tiresome, and a bit forced (sorry Zack!)....
What you do have is a rather diverse group of men (albeit stereotypes), who under normal conditions "back home" likely wouldn't have anything to do with each other. Still they are able to band together, and as they one-by-one fall for various reasons, the bond they share becomes obvious. And by the end, even MoPic has been accepted into their group, albeit a little too late.
Part of the reason
84 Charlie MoPic "gets it right" despite the production, is the attention to detail, and it appears they got Mr. Dale Dye to advise on this one (listen for him on the radio!)
All-in-all, if you want a glossy Hollywood rendition of things, then you might as well forget it. But as a decent indy effort it really does the job well.
And it figures, the whole bleeding thing appears to be on YouTube if you want to follow the pieces. Here's a chunk for your amusement....
84 Charlie MoPic (1989) on Spout.com
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