Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
Medal of Honor
Korea to Grenada
Gunny Highway’s Road
Starring Clint Eastwood (doing double duty as director), Heartbreak Ridge follows Medal of Honor winner and Korean War vet Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway as he trains a team of green Marines for a new war.
Like our recent review of A Few Good Men, plenty of art imitates life and life imitates art scenes. Although fictional, several events in the film (including the bulldozer and credit card scenes) were based on real incidents in the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada. At the same time, it would be hard to find a group of soldiers or Marines who haven’t borrowed a line or two from this movie - whether or not they have actually seen it.
“Just because we're holding hands doesn't mean we'll be taking warm showers together until the wee hours of the morning.”
“This is the AK-47 assault rifle, the preferred weapon of your enemy; and it makes a distinctive sound when fired at you, so remember it. “
“Jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft is not a natural act. “
You can check out Heartbreak Ridge HERE on Amazon Prime.
Three out of Five Night Jumps.
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A Memorial Day Weekend Moment:
The Battle of Heartbreak Ridge (Wendengli) took place in Korea from 13-27 September, 1951, paused for about a week, and resumed from 4-15 October. During the fight, elements of the U.S. Second Infantry Division and a French battalion squared off against North Korean and Chinese forces in an effort to hold the sagging United Nations line. U.S. and French forces suffered around 3,700 casualties in the fighting - some of the hardest in the war. PFC Herbert Pililaau and SFC Tony Burris were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their duty in this battle.
33,686 American Service Members died in the Korean War.
19 Americans were killed and another 116 wounded in the Invasion of Granada.
