My Review of "The Greatest Beer Run Ever"

The Greatest Beer Run Ever sounds like a pretty far fetched movie but it's actually based on true events. From the events that occur in this movie you would never have thought these things actually happened because they are radically wild but there's proof some of these things really occurred. That's not really the premise of the movie though. There's a lot to take in when you consider our main character's growth as a person.

The movie starts off with our main character Chickie. He's with his buddies in New York doing the usual, getting drunk and not making much of his life. Meanwhile, there are a lot of the men in the neighborhood signing up to fight the war in Vietnam. This is of course taking place during the war for Vietnam.

The neighborhood men see soldiers as noblemen fighting the great war. There are protesters out there that believe that these brave soldiers are fighting a war that they shouldn't be in the first place. Chickie is part of the latter group. He believes that the protesters are unpatriotic for undermining the soldier's purpose in the war. Little does Chickie know, they're both kind of saying the same thing but with different perspectives.

As Chickie is a bit of a wildman he decides to do something for his fellow neighborhood soldiers. He thinks it's a good idea to take some local beer and fly out to Vietnam to give it to them personally. The neighborhood seems to be all on board and start giving Chickie things to give to their loved ones.

When Chickie gets to Vietnam he's obviously doe eyed and naive. He soon finds out that this war is more than meets the eye. There are atrocities and destruction that will scar him for life. Pretty soon he gets caught in some misunderstandings and has to run for his life as well.

This whole movie is in the eyes of Chickie and to see how his perspective of the war changes as he witnesses the horrors of war. His character growth is part of the charm of the movie. There is a bit of comedy in the fact that he keeps running away from death despite his incompetency. A guy like Chickie has no right to walk away from war when way more competent men die in the middle of combat. He realizes this and feels the guilt from this as well.

Throughout the movie we also see different perspectives of the war and see that not everyone is right or wrong. We see that there are multiple layers to each aspect of war and that we can't go in seeing it as a black and white issue. There are many complexities that we normally glaze over and that's partly because of the government and the media.

In the end, I wasn't sure who to trust and who to really listen to. Still this isn't the best conclusion either because not all of us can or want to go into a battlefield to see war for ourselves. How can we truly judge what is right or wrong when we're not really there to witness the truth. In that aspect, I found this movie a little disheartening. I wish there was a bit of a brighter ending especially because of the light hearted nature of the rest of the movie.

Overall, I still had a really good time with this movie. I thought the characters were all genuinely amicable and added a sense of light to what is otherwise a dark and bleak situation. The character growth of Chickie was a nice experience and it was just a fun movie to watch. I have to give this one a 7 out of 10. It is definitely worth recommending to others to check out.