Synopsis:

Inspired by the fictional Lee Donowitz film in True Romance, "Coming Home in a Body Bag" is a riveting and poignant war epic that weaves together the lives of several individuals against the tumultuous backdrop of the Vietnam War. This multi-layered narrative follows their journeys from the innocence of youth to the harsh realities of combat, and ultimately to the profound impact of war on their lives. This edit masterfully intertwines these iconic elements from classic war films, creating a deeply moving and thought-provoking narrative that explores the human cost of war, the strength of friendship, and the enduring power of the human spirit. Through the eyes of these interconnected characters, the film captures the essence of an era and the lasting impact of war on individuals and society. The story begins with a charismatic radio DJ with a razor-sharp wit. Adrian's broadcasts offer a unique blend of humor and truth, providing a glimmer of hope and normalcy amidst the chaos of war. We then transition to a soldier named Forrest, an earnest and simple-minded young man from Alabama, who inadvertently finds himself enlisted in the Vietnam War. His extraordinary journey takes him from the rural landscapes of Alabama to the chaotic jungles of Vietnam. Michael, Steven, and Nick are held captive by the Viet Cong. Forced to play Russian roulette for their captors' amusement, showing the intense emotional and physical toll of war on the characters. As the men take turns pulling the trigger, the tension builds, emphasizing the randomness of survival and the desperate struggle to maintain their sanity amidst the horrors of their captivity. The stark representation of the dehumanizing effects of war, highlights the fragility of life and the depths of despair that soldiers can endure. Their courage and resilience are put to the test, pushing them to the brink. The tension and conflict that has been building throughout the film reaches its climax. The battle takes place in the dense and chaotic jungles of Vietnam during the height of the Vietnam War. The soldiers of the platoon find themselves caught between the harsh realities of combat, their own moral dilemmas, and the complexities of camaraderie. As the battle rages on, the platoon becomes deeply divided between two opposing leaders, Sergeant Barnes and Sergeant Elias, who represent contrasting ideologies and approaches to the war. This climactic confrontation not only serves as a physical battle against the enemy, but also as a symbolic struggle within the soldiers' hearts and minds, highlighting the psychological toll of war and the internal conflict faced by each individual. The final battle captures the brutal intensity of warfare and its profound impact on the human spirit, leaving a lasting impression on both the characters and the audience.

Intentions:

Some of you may be familiar with the title of this movie but for those that aren't, this was the name of the Vietnam movie mentioned in True Romance. It was never meant to be a real Quentin Tarantino film but after a great brainstorming session during the MR True Romance watch party, I thought I'd give it a go. I aim to make a coherant movie using as many scenes from popular Vietnam films during the late 70s and 80s. The intention is to create the most expensive War movie ever made, not only with Hollywoods biggest star studded line-up but also including some of the largest explosions and battle scenes caught on film during this era. Along with a killer soundtrack.

Change List:

• Insert Fanedit warning • Insert R rated Grindhouse intro • Insert 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 countdown reel • Insert MR True Romance trailer • Insert old MGM intro • Insert old Orion intro • Insert MR Grindhouse intro logo • Add “White Mountain Pictures Presents” text • Add “A Lee Donowitz Production” text • Add “A Movies Remastered film” text • Insert Platoon intro • Reframe every shot to fit the aspect ratio • Retime intro to fit following text • Add “Robert De Niro” text • Add “Willem Dafoe” text • Remove “Platoon” from credit into • Add “Johnny Depp”, “Christopher Walken”, “Tom Hanks”, “Tom Cruise”, “Martin Sheen”, “Laurence Fishburne”. “Michael J. Fox”, “Sean Penn”, “John Leguizamo”, John C. Reilly” to the credit text intro • Reframe overhead jungle shot to remove September 1967 • Overlay new “Coming Home in a Body Bag” title logo. • Fade to black and fade score • Insert “Good Morning Vietnam” Radio scene with Robin Williams • Reframe every shot in the entire scene • Remove all scene of Lt. Steven Hauk moaning about Adrien’s music • Fix audio to hide above cuts • Cut to black guy laugh • Trim down “It’s damn hot” dialogue • This scene also introduces Forest Whitakers character using “Good Morning Vietnam” scene but he will also appear later using scenes from “Platoon”. • Insert Buzz cut scene from “Full Metal Jacket” • Reframe and retime the entire scene to fit following score addition • Add Clipper sound FX. It’s weird the original didn’t add this sound as it pulls you into the scene so much more. • Add “The Rollin Stones – Sympathy for the Devil” track • Reframe and recolour entire drill instructor scene from “Full Metal Jacket” • Hard cut to Rifle training scene • Reframe “This is my Rifle; this is my gun” scene. This line is also repeated later in the movie using a scene from “Casualties of War” but with a much more sinical darker meaning. • Reframe entire assort course scene from “Full Metal Jacket” • Remove remain shots of Sgt. Pile falling behind and failing. • Insert sunset assort course shot. • Crossfade transition into Gym scene from “Born on the 4th July”. This shows that the conditions and teachers at the university are just as hard ball as the Lt. in the army itself, preparing the students for war. • Remove Tom Cruises character going home to his parents and all following teen annexed after. This is unnecessary character development and we just need to stick to the army arch. • Fade to black into recruiting scene. This also introduces Sgt. Hayes aka Tom Berenger who will also crossover into scenes from “Platoon”. • Remove all following scenes with the teens bantering at the Diner etc. Again, fleshing out parts of the characters that are unnecessary. • Transition fade into Tom Cruise going home to his parent. Nice the guy on the TV will also appear with Oliver stone in the final battle using scenes from “Platoon”. • Transition fade into “Forrest Gump” helicopter scene with “Creedence Clear Water Revival – Fortunate Son” blasting out. • Remove cheesy scene of LT. Dan’s ancestors fighting all past war. • Remove Forrest’s cheesy joke about not remembering where “Tex” is from. While there are some tension jokes in this edit, I thought I’d keep as much of Forrest’s low IQ to a minimum • Transition from Forrest & Bubba sitting in the rain into the jungle rain scene from “Platoon” • Colourgrade scene to match Forrest Gump scene. • I’ve removed the score and rearrange some of the shots/dialogue in this scene to build a more fitting narrative. • Reframe all shots from this scene to fit aspect ratio • Add “The Doors – Riders on the Storm” track. I thought the lyrics were very fitting for the scene. • Hard cut back to “Forrest Gump” ambush scene as the rain stops. • Remove some of Bubba’s dialogue and “Run Forrest Run” line. This is too specific to the original and felt it draws you out of the scene for this edit. • Remove Forrest line “I ran and ran, just like Jenny told me too”. We never see Jenny in this edit. • Remove the line “Help me Forrest, Help me”. I’ve tried to remove as many mentions of Forrest name to keep you in the movie. I’ve now replaced the name drop with “Help me, Help me!”. • Drop “Creedence Clear Water Revival – Bad Moon Rising” track and fix ducking accordingly. • As we see the rescue helicopters coming in during the “Forrest Gump” scene, hard cut into the helicopter scene from “Full Metal Jacket” • Trim out “Get some, Get some!”. This scene kind of drags so I’m shorted it to make it more punchy. • Colourgrade shot after “Ain’t war Hell” to match incoming scene from “Apocalypse Now” • Insert Trumpet score from “Apocalypse Now” to blend scenes • Remove intense synth score with shots. While it works in the original scene, it sets the wrong tone for the current narrative. • Cut to overhead helicopter shots to flow better from “Full Metal Jacket” helicopter scene. • Transition from “Apocalypse Now” beach scene into “Born on the 4th of July” beach scene • Colourgrade shots to match sunrise colour pallet from previous scene. • Transition into Village bombing scene in “Deer Hunter” • Transition from enemy approaching in “Deer Hunter” scene into soldiers approaching using “Born on the 4th of July” scene. I actually really like this fade, as it feel really smooth and natural. • From beach battle in “Bot4J” cut to battle scenes from “Causalities of War”. • Colourgrade above scenes to match “Bot4J” scenes • Redo sound design for this scene and add more gun fight fx throughout. In the original the soldier just stop mid battle but the fight in “Bot4J” scene are still going on around them. • After soldier getting shot in the neck during “CoW” scene, cut to Tom Crusie getting shot using scenes from “Bot4J” • After we think Tom is dead, cut to helicopter landing scene in “Jacob’s Ladder”. • Colourgrade “Jacob’s Ladder” scene to match sunset pallet in “Bot4J” • Remove shots from a calm basecamp and cut straight to incoming call about “Movement in the treeline”. This also introduces Ving Rhames character who will also appear in scenes from “CoW” in the final battle. • Fade to white and cut back into scene from “Bot4J” • Slowly fade in score from “CoW” to build the emotion. • Transition from Tom being rescued in “Bot4J” into Brown getting rescues in “CoW” and soldiers getting rescues in “Jacob’s Ladder” • Add helicopter sound FX • Fade in score transition from return to basecamp scene in “Bot4J” • Blackout transition into captured scene from “Deer Hunter” • Trim out several shots of Steven freaking out after gun shots. This scene is way more tense with a shorter runtime. • Fade in score from “Platoon” • Hard cut to soldiers entering the village • Add “Creedence Clear Water Revival – Run Through the Jungle” track. • Reframe all shots from Platoon to fix aspect Ratio. • Remove the rape scene from “Platoon”. While this movie is brutal, it doesn’t need this much rape. • Fade in score from “Apocalypse now” and hard cut into boat scene. • Transition from “Apocalypse now” scene of the troops arriving at an empty camp into troops being captured in “Deer hunter”. Both scenes have pouring rain and explain what has happened pretty well. • Hard cut from Michael getting shot at in “Deer Hunter” into Troops arming up in “Platoon” • Cut from Night shot in “platoon” to B-Roll shooting star shit in “CoW” into raiding the village scene in “CoW” • Colourgrade all scenes above to match the same night blue for continuity, • Add the line “Ah, man! I ain’t gonna rape nobody” and “Ericson, you gotta back me up!”. These lines were from later in the movie but using them here explains why there is a pause when the soldiers have an altercation later. • Hard cut from soldiers traveling across country in “CoW” into captured camp in “Deer Hunter” • Crossfade transition from “Deer Hunter” river scene into “Full Metal Jacket” lime pit. This shows that there are a hung number of deaths on each side and that both sides are barbaric. • Reframe all shots from “Full Metal Jacket”. • Add “Steppenwolf – Born to be Wild” track over tank scene in “Full Metal Jacket”. This is a great song that uplifts the movie before it turns dark again. • Transition from “Surfin’ Bird” score and helicopters flying in at the scene of the “Full Metal Jacket” scene into helicopters flying over the jungle in “Platoon”. • Remove “Platoon” scene with Charlie Sheen and Keith David to keep pacing upbeat. • Hard cut to “Platoon” Trench foot scene • Reframe all shots to fit aspect ratio • Hard cut from “Platoon” Lt. confrontation into “CoW” Lt. confrontation. This shows that all platoons are breaking under the harsh conditions and starting to turn on each other. • Coolurgrade “CoW” scene to match jungle colour in “Platoon” • Fade to black after “This ain’t the army” night scene in “CoW” • Fade to black into jungle scene in “Platoon” • Colourgrade above scene to make it look like night. THIS IS WHERE EDITING GOES INSANE… • Cut from Viet Cong walking through the jungle at night in “Platoon” into troops walking through the the jungle at night in “Cow”. • From troops finding “VC Tunnels” in “CoW” cut to “VC” triggering the trip wire in “Platoon” • Colourgrade all crossover movie scene to match the same night colour pallet moving forward. • As the overhead flairs are going off in “Platoon” cut to the overhead flairs going off in “CoW”. • Transition gun sounds from “CoW” scene into gun sounds from “Platoon” • While the Troops are looking for “VC” in “Platoon” cut to Troops looking for “VC” in “CoW”. • To build tension cut from Michael j. Fox being trapped in the hole, with overhead bombshells going off into Charlie Sheen being in the pit while booby trap bombs are going off. This is the same sound fx in each movie, which really helps to sell these scenes working together. • Cut from the Troops being trapped in the pit in “Platoon” back to Michael J. Fox being trapped in the hole in “CoW”. While this scene was the opener to “CoW” adding at after the rape scene and feud between Michaels and Sean’s characters, it shows that no matter how much you hate each other, you still must rely on each other over the enemy. Personally this shows some seriously deep subtext that most people wouldn’t pick up on. • Cut from Sean rescuing Michael in “CoW” into “VC” being spotted in “Platoon”. • Cut from Charlie Sheen running the jungle in “Platoon” into troops running in “Full Metal Jacket”. Notice I’ve made sure they’re running in the same direct so the cut isn’t jarring. • Cut from “Full Metal Jacket” Troops setting up in the bunker, into Troops being attacked by “VC” in their pits. • Remove laughable cross-eyed shot of trooper being stabbed in “Platoon”. I can’t look at this type of scene without thinking “Tropic Thunder”. • Cut from Troops surviving “VC” attack in “Platoon” over to Troops about to be attacked on base in “Full Metal Jacket” • Cut from above scene into the attack on base in “Platoon” where Oliver Stone gets blown up. • Fade to white add battle sound fx kick over throughout 5.1 channels. • Insert day battle scene on the bridge from “CoW”. This shows that the battle has being going on throughout the night. • Change colourgrade of above scene to look like sunrise. • As the troopers point out the army boat arriving in “CoW” cut to army boat shots entering a battle in “Apocalypse now”. This was one of the last edits I thought of and it came out amazingly. • As the boat is being attacked in “Apocalypse now”, cut to heavy gun fire in “CoW”. • Blend sound fx from both scenes to make this battle seem way bigger than in the original movies. • As the “VC” are being fired upon in “CoW” cut to troops monitoring the wounded during the “Apocalypse now” boat scene. • Continue heavy gun fire sound fx over scene. • Cut to captured Vietnamese girl trying to escape from “CoW” • Cut back to Troops losing it on the boat in “Apocalypse now”. • Cut back to captured Vietnamese girl trying to escape from “CoW” • Maintain the heavy gunfire sound fx to build tension in the scene. • Add dialogue from the “Apocalypse now” boat scene over scenes from “CoW” to marry them together as one narrative. • Fade in audio from “Apocalypse now” as Michael from “CoW” is overlooking the bridge. • Extend score from “CoW” • Cut back to Troops losing it on the boat in “Apocalypse now”. • Continue score from “Cow” over “Apocalypse now” scenes to marry the two together. • Continue the tape message from Lee’s Grandma from “Apocalypse now” over the “VC” dead flowing in the river in “CoW” scenes • Continue score from “CoW” into jungle shot from “Platoon” • Colourgrade above shot to match jungle colours in “CoW” • Reframe all “Platoon” shots to fit aspect ratio • Bland “Adagio for Strings” from the original score into an extended studio recording of the track so it continues over the following 11 min outro. • Insert helicopter rescue shot from “Jacob’s Ladder” • Colourgrade above shot to match “Platoon” palette • Insert Michael J. Fox helicopter rescue in “CoW” • Add helicopter sound fx to hide transition into Charlie Sheen being put onto a rescue helicopter in “Platoon” • Cut from “Second Platoon” into “Deer Hunter” Soldiers drifting on the river scene. • Trim out the shots of Steven freaking out and keeping the scenes tension building with shots of the empty valley walls. • Have the “Deer Hunter” Troops being rescues instead of falling off the helicopter in the original. • Cut to rescue helicopter in “Platoon” so it looks like they’re the ones rescuing the soldiers from “Deer Hunter” • From the aftermath scenes from “Platoon” cut to the troop’s interviews in “Full Metal Jacket” • Reintroduce “Adagio for Strings” track over above scene to marry the outro. • Cut from the sad aftermath of “Full Metal Jacket” into Charlie Sheens monolog as the outro to “Platoon” • Add the “Based on a true story” title scroll from “CoW” • Cut to “Platoon” credits • Remove actors we didn’t see in this edit. • Create footage credits for “Robin Williams, Matthew Modine, R, Lee Ermey, Vincent D’Onofrio, Kevyn Major Howard, Tim Colceri, Kieron Jecchinis, Ed O’Ross, Arliss Howard, Adam Baldwin, Dorian Harewood, Sal Lopez, Gary Landon Miller, Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn, Don Harvey, John C. Reilly, Thuy Thu Le, John Leguizamo, Ving Rhames, Tom Hanks, Mykelti Williamson, Gary Sinise, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Robert Duvell, Albert Hall, Laurence Fishburne, Tom Cruise, John Savage, Christopher Walken, Robert De Niro. • Outro credits including added music and production. • Add Orion Pictures logo. • Add MR vintage logo.

Additional Notes:

Released only on MR Discord to initiate members who own the original Blu-rays. Invite link here: https://discord.gg/EBdQVXhDUh

Special Thanks:

To Gazza75, Seamus Mac, Jedifonz66, Dawnrazor and everyone at the preview watch party. — Thanks to the MR Discord Community for the time and support during the brain storming sessions.