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Truly Dreadful Film

Brilliant and touching

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I just found this to rent at my local library. This is as timeless as a boot-camp movie as you will ever see. Jan Michael Vincent, as a hippie draftee named Adrian, comes to Marine boot-camp during the Vietnam War. He uses some of his 'yoga' skills to become a better, more well-fit solider, both mentally and physically, than the rest of the troops. His inability to 'shoot to kill' is the only thing that seems to hold him back from becoming the ultimate marine. He battles wills with his Sgt. Thomas Drake (Darren McGavin) throughout the movie. Adrian also wins over the hearts of his fellow marines. The drill sergeant has a little 'inner hippie' in him also it seems (he sketches birds, etc.) and he's immediately connected to the Jan Michael character. Eventually he tries to protect him like a father from the other sadistic drill sergeant. There could also be some underlying sexual tension here as Drake seems to want to protect Adrian from the aggressively hostile Sgt. DePayster. It's a great movie! If you like Biloxi Blues, you'll love this! Also, for any Jan Michael fan, this is a must see. Jan really seems to become Adrian after getting his lovely blond hair shaved off (for real!) at the start of the movie. Jan has such a natural way of acting - the shaved hear transforms him beautifully into this young, sensitive marine. It's fascinating to watch. It's one of his superior performances.

I saw this movie in 1970 when it was on TV. Eleven years later at the tender age of 29 I joined the Utah National Guard and went to basic training at Ft. Jackson, SC. The memory of this movie helped me to survive basic training. I remembered that the drill sergeants really wanted to yell at the hippie all the time, but as long as he did what he was told the drill sergeants had a hard time finding something to yell at him about. So when I was in basic training I tried hard to do everything I was told so that the drill sergeants wouldn't find a reason to yell at me. It helped a lot. Now I have a son who just went through basic training and I told him about the movie before he left and how it helped me. I consider the movie "Tribes" my key to getting through basic training.

I served over 8 years in the active Army and also the Guard and am a veteran of Desert Storm. I watched 'Tribes' recently and regard the movie with unusual interest. The movie does not make a blanket statement as being anti-war, but more focuses on the military machine (this being the Marine Corps) trying to indoctrinate a young man who opposes war. Was this movie believable? Yes, I rubbed elbows with men who became pacifists and later refused service when called back to duty. The conflict between Mr McGavin and Mr. Vincent is seen as being very realistic going through basic training with the assumption that being 'we can break and mold you in our image'. That was the reality for all of us in the military and I found the ending to this movie quite different than what I expected it to be. I highly recommend this for all ages.

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).