The Best Vietnam War Movies

No matter how many Vietnam War films are there, released in any decade, there are four best films that have been the most received because of how emotional, atmospheric and cinematographic they all are. These four are famous and well known in the world of cinema, and I can say they're my favorites too.
Now just so you know, I'm not making a count down out of 5 or 10 based on a list of favorites. I'm just telling that these are all utter classics.

• Before this film, Stanley Kubrick was famously known for masterpieces like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining, and he had experience addressing wars as part of the subject in his films like the First World War in Paths of Glory, The Seven Years War in Barry Lyndon, and the Cold War in Dr. Strangelove. However, in 1987, Kubrick turned his attention to the Vietnam War with Full Metal Jacket. 
• The film has two sections, Training for 'Nam' and Fighting in 'Nam'. Out of all the characters and scenes, R Lee Ernmy as Sgt Hartmann plays the best performance in the film. The cinematography is excellent and the special effects look absolutely real with fire and smoke in the gunfire. A tightly constructed and claustrophobic film, Full Metal Jacket is extremely effective at communicating Vietnam War themes. 
• When I first watched Full Metal Jacket, the psychological attention really made me surprised and depressed at the same time.

• I know this first of three films set in the Vietnam War from Oliver Stone. Platoon is a powerful classic and most notable film from Stone himself. 
• The film shows a brutal analysis of war itself and it shows how effecting the war can bring on good people. There are scenes in the film that are hard to watch, tripled with entertaining but not so glamorous action scenes and fine performances from Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, and Tom Berenger. 
• Oliver Stone's experience in Vietnam makes the film a more personal approach to the war, which makes Platoon explores a harrowing ground level of the war.
• When I first watched it, I almost stopped watching it because of how difficult it was to cope with. 

• I watched this film for just one time recently, and I can tell that it's so accurate and bleak at depicting the emotions before and after the entry into war. By the end of the film, I had tears streaming down my face. That's how depressing the film was.
• Michael Cimino's sympathetic direction really overpowers the film, and it's the winner of 5 Oscar including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken. The Deer Hunter is a powerful look into the Vietnam War with fantastic performances Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Meryl Streep.
• The film is famous for Russian Roulette scenes which at the time, made it controversial, but today, it's a classic. 
• Despite the film having a 3 hour running time, The Deer Hunter is a dramatic, emotional and harrowing examination of how people are not the same after the war with some of the most unforgettable scenes that were made from the 1970s.

• I'm certain that most people know this film by heart, even with its Final Cut coming out this month. Most people have rated this to be one of the Best War Movies to date, and has left a legacy of references in various films and TV shows.
• Francis Ford Coppola's haunting epic war shows a ruthless journey through Vietnam into Kurtz's Compound and into the soul of man himself. The film is an adaptation of John Conrad's Heart of Darkness, only the novel takes place in 1880s Africa and the film transplants it to 1969 Vietnam. 
• The film itself is absolutely audacious and visionary. Apocalypse Now captures the horrors of war in a visually stunning manner, followed with excellent cinematography and first-class performances. The subtle message is Man's Will to Destroy, leading to know that war is more horrific and destructive than you know.
• I felt like I saw something completely heavy after the first time I watched the Redux version. Coppola once said "My film isn't about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It's what it was really like. It was crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment and little by little we went insane." This explains how difficult it was him and his crew to make at the time as it is grim and bleak as pitch black. A documentary film called Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse explains Apocalypse Now behind the scenes and how it was made.
• Apocalypse Now is a fantastic spectacle and an utter masterpiece not be forgotten.