The Greatest Beer Run Ever – Review
126 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Peter Farrelly, Pete Jones, Brian Currie
Directed by Peter Farrelly
**NOTE: this post will be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, enjoy this brief look at Mark’s thoughts. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
To show support for his neighborhood friends serving in Vietnam, Chickie Donohue (Zac Efron) decides to do something totally outrageous: travel to the frontline by himself to bring the soldiers a little piece of home — their favorite can of American beer. However, what started as a well-meaning journey quickly turns into the adventure of a lifetime as Chickie confronts the reality of this controversial war and his reunions with his childhood buddies thrust him into the complexities and responsibilities of adulthood. Based on an incredible true story.
“Based on a true story.”
You guys know we feel about these kinds of movies around here by now, right? Regardless, this one looked entertaining in its own right, so let’s give it a shot, okay?
Zac Efron, who has been carving out a very productive career since his High School Musical days, is Chick Donohue, a New Yorker who, in 1969, finds himself tired of watching the news –and even his sister–malign the Vietnam War and by extension, those who are fighting it. As many of Chick’s friends are in the midst of the fighting, he decides that someone needs to let them know that they are loved and appreciated.
Here’s where the “based on a true story” comes in. Yes, Chick decided that the best way to show appreciation to his neighborhood friends is to take them beer from the local watering hole. This actually happened, which is insane on the face of it.
Finding passage on a cargo ship (as Chick is currently working as a Merchant Marine), he lands in Vietnam and gets permission to go ashore for three days to see his friends.
Let’s assume that not everything in the film happened in reality as it is presented here, though.
Since no sane person would think about getting INTO Vietnam, Chick is assumed by the military to be a “tourist,” the code name for a CIA operative, and bumbles his way onto transports which get him into some actual hot spots where his friends are in the thick of the fight.
Over the course of three-plus days (after he loses his ride home), Chick eventually finds those friends and has his eyes opened by them and their experiences as to the reality of war, especially THIS particular war.
By the end, most everything works out the way you might expect, but which in reality shouldn’t work out at all.
Yes, politics is a factor. Yes, Vietnam was a goat-rope from the word “go.”
No, the film doesn’t bash the soldiers, which is a plus for me.
Surprisingly (?) this is a really well put-together film, with Efron turning in a solid performance, evolving from a well-meaning though somewhat unambitious man, drifting from job to job without seeming to have a goal for himself, who is known for never following through on anything. When he pledges to deliver the beer, though, he is swept up–not just in reconciling his own shortcomings–but in the positivity of the neighborhood at his declaration.
Basically, he couldn’t back out if he tried.
And he did try.
Ultimately, the film is focused on what one man can do, or become, given the proper impetus.
The interplay between Chick and his friends as he locates them one by one is moving and genuine.
In an understated supporting role, Bill Murray plays the Colonel, who runs the local bar and has a distinctly World War II point of view on combat and the art of soldiering.
The most surprising performance may be that of Russell Crowe, a grizzled war correspondent who provides the most jarring yet sincere impact on Chick during and in the aftermath of the Tet offensive.
Check this one out when it opens.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever will hit select theaters and stream exclusively on Apple TV+ beginning September 30 and stars Zac Efron, Russell Crowe, Jake Picking, Will Ropp, Archie Renaux, Kyle Allen, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis and Bill Murray
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