I got a message last night from a friend asking if I wanted to come over and watch a feature-length, stop-motion Vietnam war film called Viva the 'Nam made with GI Joe figures. I'll be honest, the idea of it gave me visions of a series of Robot Chicken skits strung together for roughly 80 or so minutes, and, well, that's a vision I have little interest in seeing. But then I read the message out loud and had a change of heart. A feature-length, stop-motion Vietnam war film called Viva the 'Nam ... with GI Joe figures? Of course I want to see that! Why wouldn't I want to see that? What I wasn't told, however, proved even better.

Viva the Nam has been a labor of love for over eight years (!), the current runtime clocks in at 107 minutes (!!), the 'GI Joes' used in the animation are actually celebrity action figures (!!!), and the whole thing was shot on 16mm (!!!!). Oh, and though the film is a spoof on a wide swath of Vietnam war movies, it's much more than just a few loosely assembled gags. It has a flawed but full narrative with intertwining storylines that goes beyond what you'd expect from a project of this nature.

Of course that's not to say that Viva the 'Nam is a serious movie. It was made with a serious face, sure, but this is a war/action spoof made with action-figures and as far as that genre niche goes, Viva the 'Nam is King. Granted, it doesn't really have any competition, but iffins it did, I wager it'd stick a plastic combat knife right through the plastic faces of anyone out for the newly-invented title.

If Paul Hanley and friends had completed their film when they started it eight years ago, it would probably be a word-of-mouth success by now. It's not hard to imagine copies of it getting passed from friend to friend or circulating its way through campus computer networks. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if it became an Adult Swim sensation, though they would have to heavily censor the torrent of profanity that courses throughout the film. Not to mention all the miniaturized blood and guts that are spilled in the name of lunacy. The last third of the film alone is a brilliant orgy of action-figure destruction cooler and smarter than anything I've seen from Adult Swim in a good long while.

As of right now, though, most of the world is going to have to settle for their Viva the 'Nam fix by way of trailers and clips. If you live in Austin, Texas, however, you'll be able to catch it on the big screen (!!!!!) on January 27th at the Alamo Drafthouse. From their event page:

"VIVA depicts the bizarre adventures of Pvt. Joe Holmes, a marine stationed in Vietnam's "I Corps" from 1968-1969. The last of a family line that has lost a man in every single American conflict, Holmes will have to overcome communist armies, Russian Roulette rounds, USO riots, bloodthirsty drill instructors, leeches, drunk drivers, an M16-wielding Charlton Heston, and poop-smoking Frenchmen to make it out of Vietnam alive!"

I'll be keeping my eye on this one and will bring news of any wider distribution, but in the mean time, check out the NSFW Viva the 'Nam trailer and more below. Oh, and hop over to AICN for Massawyrm's writeup/discovery of this welcome oddity.







[This last clip kicks off the best part of the movie, a part that should have Arnold Schwarzenegger fans falling out of their chairs with laughter.]