Five Green Berets stationed in Vietnam in 1968 grudgingly undertake the mission of a lifetime -- to secretly transport an 8,000-pound elephant through 200 miles of rough jungle terrain. High jinks prevail when Capt. Sam Cahill promises the Montagnard villagers of Dak Nhe that he'll replace their prized elephant in time for an important ritual. But for Capt. T.C. Doyle, the mission becomes a jumbo-sized headache!
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Reviews
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
It's 1968 Vietnam. Capt. T.C. Doyle (Ray Liotta) arrives in a Montagnard village to meet up with Capt. Sam Cahill (Danny Glover) who has been cultivating relationship with the locals. They are in NVA territory monitoring the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The kids steal Doyle's candy bar which is later discovered by the NVA commander. In retaliation, he kills the village's only elephant. Cahill promises to replace the elephant before an upcoming festival. Doyle is unconvinced. They recruit scheming supply officer David Poole (Denis Leary), short-timer Harvey Ashford (Doug E. Doug), and Lawrence Farley (Corin Nemec). They buy the elephant Bo Tat along with his handler Linh who lost his father in the war.It is such an odd tone. This is one of the few Vietnam war movies where fighting happens but nobody ever dies on screen. It tries to be funny but the odd sensibility strips it of its humor. All the elephant vomit and suppositories are not funny when there is an expectation of death and the movie avoids death like the plague. The whole tone is weirdly family-friendly but it could never be a kiddie movie. I wonder if Disney expects little kids to go see this movie for Dumbo. The whole thing is a bit off-putting.
Operation Dumbo Drop stars Ray Liotta, Danny Glover and Denis Leary, it is set during the Vietnam war and is a Disney family comedy-drama rather implausibly based on a true event.Liotta is a US soldier who lands in a remote Vietnamese village to replace Glover and his actions leads to their sole working elephant to be killed. In order to safeguard the strategic interest of the US military, Glover and Liotta decide to locate another elephant as a replacement and bring it to the villagers as a gift.Withe the help of Leary they find an old elephant who is accompanied by a young boy but the elephant does not like flying in planes and they have to use various means to take the elephant back to the villagers.The story has enough humour and warmth to keep the kids entertained, they will enjoy the elephant going on a rampage inside a plane or in the marketplace. It is rather ludicrous despite being based on true events but Liotta and Glover look like they are having fun in a Disney movie.
In 1968, I was the CA NCO (Civil Affairs Noncommissioned Officer) for Co. C, 5th SFG(A), 1st SF, HQed In DaNang, RVN. I was not directly involved with the mission but had a front row seat and the officers I worked under kept me apprised of the progress. These facts might be of interest:1. "Our" Top Secret operation had two elephants called Bonnie and Clyde.2. The elephants were not dropped in slings or standing up as depicted in the movie. They had to be tied down to airdrop cargo pallets. If they were hung in slings, their own weight would have suffocated them. If they had been dropped standing up, their weight would have caused fatal physical harm upon landing. 3. Two veterinarians were flown from England to sedate and revive the animals. 4. The purpose was not for a ceremony but for a much more practical reason. A sawmill had been built in the village to help its economy. The mountain trails were much too narrow to use bulldozers to drag the trees to the mill and someone came up with this idea. 5. The mission ultimately was a failure. The elephants were juveniles (weight!!!) and were much too small to drag the large logs. Growing elephants eat a lot. The village chief complained that the villagers were being forced to travel deeper and deeper into VC controlled territory to collect banana trees for their fodder. I don't know how this problem was resolved.The movie was much more interesting and fun, as the actual mission was pulled off without a hitch and had little entertainment value. My credibility could be verified on my website which I am required not to include, but I'll be glad to provide it to anyone who is interested. There is a direct contact link available.For those reviewers who chose this forum to again knock a war over 36 years gone, SHAME ON YOU! You have only exposed your own ignorance. As all soldiers in every war , some Americans conducted themselves better than others. As this mission actually went (and as depicted in this DRAMATIZATION), many of us worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the Vietnamese. I am most proud of my days in Vietnam when I was privileged to provide food, cooking utensils, clothing and other necessities to peoples displaced by the war. Many good American lives were lost directly attempting to prevent harm to Vietnamese people. I risked my life more than once, not in combat, but in aiding "common" villagers in tasks they could not accomplice themselves. My OIC (Officer in Charge) was shot down and killed while attempting to evacuate refugees from a besieged A-Camp. HE DID NOT HAVE TO BE ON THAT AIRCRAFT. You are welcome to your opinion and can state it per the First Amendment but, ethically, you should study and actually know a little bit about the topic before you share an opinion. And for Heaven's sake, keep political opinions on political forums. "Dumbo Drop" hardly glorified warfare. It just exposed the truth that a little bit of good can be found in most things, even things as tragic as warfare.And to the reviewer who doubted that anything funny ever happens in warfare: You too, speak out of ignorance. I spent two years in country and had many genuine good times, often with the fine Vietnamese soldiers with whom I worked.
All objects fall at a constant rate of acceleration (9.8 m/s^2), no matter what the mass is for either of them. If you drop a penny and a 50 pound weight at the same time,from the same height, they will both hit the ground at the same time. Air resistance is what could slow down the acceleration (ie. a piece of paper, or a feather, or the parachutes they used in the movie). So, even thought the elephant is heavier than the guy, they will both accelerate to their terminal velocities at the same rate. What they did in the movie was physically accurate. But either way, the movie was good. I think Denis Leary is hilarious. His new show Rescue Me is pretty good.