The Tribe

As an ex-Marine, I was keenly interested in seeing this movie of the week rerun when it aired, I think at 2 am, but what the heck I was on night shift anyway.

First off, I liked it, I really liked it and not because it "took sides" because frankly I don't think it did. A VERY young Jan-Michael Vincent played the part of a spacy draftee quite well and Darren McGavin was his usual excellent self. Parts of the film were filmed at MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) in San Diego, with real recruits going through drill training on the grinder. Even though it was filmed at the height of the Vietnam war, politics was left out of the film, but they did manage to show the conflict between the hippie and the more conventional recruits.

The best performance though was from Earl Holliman in my opinion. He played the hard-ass DI to the hilt and provided the strongest contrast to the hippie's live-and-let-live anarchy, even stronger than McGavin's character.

The movie didn't offer answers, nor did it preach about who was right and who wasn't (maybe that was the point anyway, nobody is really 100% "right" in any conflict).

I am usually not a fan of war films or war-themed films, but this one was reely (I meant the spelling) good. It was a fine character study of opposites, with Darren McGavin and Jan-Michael Vincent in stand-out performances. One day I have to try the meditation tricks that Vincent's character uses to mentally take himself away from the unpleasantries he had to deal with at the boot camp.

On the note of the cast, can someone tell me where is Bud Cort in this film? He's listed as a 'draftee nerd,' but I don't see him. I am wondering if he has been mistaken for Danny Goldman, who was in a lot of Bud's early films ("M*A*S*H" and "The Strawberry Statement" come to mind), and if you didn't look well enough, could have been mistaken for him. (I made that mistake regarding one dramatic scene that takes place in the men's room at the barracks. I had to watch it twice to correct myself that it wasn't Bud Cort).

Just to get it accurate I found out back in the day that the US Marines actually did take draftees during part of Vietnam at least. Apparently they would send recruiters to army induction centers like Whitehall Street in New York City and at big places like that would select four or five and say you lucky ones are part of the Marines as opposed to the army. Around the time I was doing my basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, Tribes was popular, so popular this made for TV film actually got a theatrical release.

I was not the most military of trainees, but I was Sergeant York next to Jan-Michael Vincent. I have to ask myself what was that Marine Corps spotter thinking when he picked him? There he was with that adorable long blond hair and that unforgivable fashion faux pas socks and sandals, looking every inch like he belonged at Woodstock.

I'd have had the same reaction that gunnery sergeant Darren McGavin did, someone is playing a joke on me. But it's for real and Vincent with his meditation, his yoga starts undermining the whole platoon except for a few gung ho recruits. He drives McGavin batty, but he intrigues him nevertheless. Neither can understand what makes the other tick.

The one Jan-Michael really drives nuts is the sergeant just above him in rank Earl Holliman. He's got special plans for this hippie freak that McGavin thinks are not appropriate.

The draft is gone now and the Marines probably for their own good as an elite fighting force dropped it on their own years earlier. It was a Vietnam experiment that could really go wrong if a Jan-Michael Vincent got in the mix in a few places.

Vincent, McGavin, and Holliman and the rest do some of their best work in Tribes. One of the best made for TV movies ever done.

I saw this movie when it came out 35 years ago (has it really been that long?). Most memorable scene was the one in which free spirit hippie Jan-Michael Vincent was forced to hold up two full buckets of water (one in each hand) shoulder high as punishment by taskmaster Darrin McGavin. Vincent turned the tables by meditating on a carefree afternoon spent frolicking on a sun-dappled hillside with a comely young miss. His blissed-out state enabled him to maintain the buckets aloft indefinitely. This naturally drove the by-the-book McGavin to distraction. Enjoyed the culture clash theme. Exemplary writing, directing, and especially acting (McGavin superb as the grizzled DI, and Vincent at his charismatic best).

I saw this when I was 14 in 1970 and it had a big impact on me. Everything about it was excellent. Special kudos to Vincent for insisting they shave his actual hair for realism. (I read about that in one of the teen magazines of the time, lol)

Anyone interested in the late 60s early 70s "hippie" movement should watch this, and anyone who wonders about the military's methods of transforming ordinary citizens into military personnel. As other reviewers have noted, this film doesn't take sides, but presents a sympathetic view to both the DI and the drafted hippie, and protrays them both as willing and able to see other points of view. A good film for parents to watch with teens; it will lead to interesting discussions.