Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating:   Summary: Period Piece - Very Interesting Viewing Comment: Tribes is certainly a period piece of 1970 with a strong liberal anti-establishment point of view. Today it seems dated and blase`, yet it still has a magnetic attraction to viewers whether veterans, active duty military, or civilians.
From a technical standpoint, there were some flaws (which seems inevitable in any hollywood production dealing with the military) and many ommissions about USMC boot camp (what happened to the long humps with helmet, flak jacket and packs, field exercises, bivuacking, etc?), but overall they got the flavor of boot camp correct. As a former US Marine Commissioned Officer, I never attended MCRD San Diego (I attended OCS Quantico, VA), but as an airline pilot I have flown into Lindbergh Field, San Diego, CA on many occasions and have seen the grinder, PT fields, obstacle course, buildings etc. from the airport terminal. Not much has changed in appearance since 1970.
Gunnery Sgt Drake, the platoon DI, was not really all that tough, and as a matter of fact, was IMO a little too lenient with Pvt Adrian. In real life, not many DIs would have taken the time and trouble to accomodate a trouble maker, malcontent, or non-conformist. Pvt Adrian would have been either recycled, sent to motivational platoon, and/or processed out. Remember the DI has to screen and train 60 plus recruits in every platoon over a set syllabus and time schedule, so they just don't have the time to concentrate too long on one problem child. First Sgt DeFreys, the Company Chief DI, may have been an annoying jerk but he was right in suggesting to Drake that Adrian needed to be either recycled or sent to motivational platoon.
But this is the land of TV and movies, and audience sympathy in 1970 was not with the USMC but with Pvt Adrian and other platoon members.
I would like to see Tribes put on DVD, but I was only able to find a used and inflated VHS tape produced in the 1980s. There are some never opened "new" VHS copies floating around from time to time, but they are too expensive in my opinion. [...]
One last commentary on life in 2008 vs. 1970. I realize that most movies are filmed out of sequence and are not authentic and that more people smoked then, but look how skinny and in shape most of the recruits in Tribes were vs. the average 18 year old today. Anyway, happy viewing! Customer Rating: Summary: Classic TV movie Comment: They just don't make TV movies like this anymore. Well these days most TV-movies are cable based, but whatever the case, most of it's thrown together trash. The early 70s were a great time for TV movies ("Tribes, "Duel," "Brian's Song," etc). Little did I know as a young kid these prime-time specials would become ageless classics. Everyone in this film does a top-notch job of acting, no matter how small the part. I don't care a whole lot for the melody "Tribes Are a Gathering" played thoughout the film, but it still does a pretty good job of setting the tone. Too bad "Tribes" isn't available on DVD. Hopefully soon.
Customer Rating: Summary: Pro hippie, not Anti-war Comment: 'Tribes'was a movie I was made to watch in my sociology class, and considering the times, anti-war really hit home for us. Though, my boyfriend is in the army reserves, and so I know for a fact that the depiction of the boot camp was only partially accurate. However, it doesn't matter so much about how accurate it was. The other reviewers are constantly criticizing the movie's portral of Adrian as this abused hippy, but that wasn't what the movie was about at all. Adrian is a boy who is thrusted into a conformist controlled establishment which he had spent his life trying to defy. How he got there isn't the point. He maintains his beliefs of anti-conformity while still being in that environment and wins. The general's reasons and rules that he followed were accurate, he cannot be completely blamed, but the rules of not thinking just doing is what Adrian is against. He uses meditations to survive pain that he is expected to feel, he helps rather than competes, and he politely objects to things rather than arguing or simply accepting them. As to the scene where Adrian does not shoot a board isn't about being whimpy, it's about realizing that to shot that board is the equivalent of being willing to shoot a human being, which he's not. The message is pro-hippie and hippie ideals; you can be a pacifist and patriotic at the same time. The marine setting was just that, a setting. the ultimate location of anti-hippie conformity. See it for what it means, not what you see with the naked eye. Customer Rating: Summary: Interesting In Retrospect Comment: I saw this film when I was in high school, and found it horrifying. Oh my gosh, they shaved off his hair! Oh my goodness, the abuse he is forced to endure! Oh my lands, they are so cruel to this gentle young flower! Well, more than two decades passed before I even thought of this movie again, or viewed it. Watching it after growing more mature, and having my own military experience behind me, it wasn't quite so horrifying. (Then again, when you're not yet 20, the future is infinite and eight weeks of boot camp an eternity.) First, what was this hippie kid doing there? One volunteers for the Marines, rather than being drafted. The guy had to sign his name somewhere, and he must have read the document, so there's really no explanation for him beeing so apparently clueless about the process. Second, the drill instructor was perfectly fair, he was following the program and doing his job, and was not being particularly horrifying or mean to this one hippie recruit. McGavin made it clear at one point, when Adrian asked the purpose of a particular exercise, by replying, "You must do this because I told you to do it, and that is the only reason you need to have." This is how the armed forces function, folks -- particularly in the infantry. Third, Adrian really did have more self-control than the other guys, with his relaxation techniques. He wasn't needlessly tense or worried over a day's events, and he obviously had the physical make-up for doing well as a Marine. Fourth, that nonsense with the rifle -- Adrian crying and shivering when handed a rifle -- was utterly absurd. Adrian had sufficient self-control to perform all sorts of difficult physical tasks -- yet he cracks up completely, whines and moans and cries when handed a rifle to fire? He can't simply take a deep breath and operate a small mechanical device, launching a projectile at a completely inanimate target? Give me a break. Fifth, the film did include positive comments about military service, specifically the reference to the mix of people and skin colors in the training platoon, and the benefits of such close interaction by such differing sorts of folks. Finally, I bet all of the surviving "Adrians" of the Hippie Movement are kicking themselves now, to some extent, for not bucking up, shutting up and simply enduring that eight weeks of basic training back then -- less than an eyeblink in the whole time of their lives. They know, deep inside, they would have emerged better for doing so, and would not look back upon those failings with contempt that is actually shame in disguise.
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