The Boys in Company C

The Boys in Company C (1978), directed by Sidney J. Furie and shot in the Philippines, is a Vietnam War drama you can watch online on iFILM. It arrived nearly a decade ahead of Platoon and Full Metal Jacket and carried the same conviction: the war was absurd, the chain of command unreliable, and the human cost specific.

Five Marine recruits go through basic training in 1967 and end up in Vietnam by 1968, where their own company commander endangers more lives than the enemy does, and their South Vietnamese allies are absorbed in black-market deals. A deal surfaces: lose a soccer match on purpose against a local team and they can ride out the war playing exhibition games behind the lines. Stan Shaw, Andrew Stevens, Craig Wasson and a young R. Lee Ermey make up the core group — Ermey playing the drill instructor he would later perfect in Full Metal Jacket. Stream The Boys in Company C (1978) online on iFILM.