One of the most cliche ways to show appreciation for someone can be to offer to buy them a beer. It represents a small token of gratitude and a moment of respite from whatever work they are doing.
In 1967, Chickie Donahue decided he wanted to treat soldiers from his neighborhood to a brew. While they were still fighting in Vietnam. Director Peter Farrelly adapted this true story into a movie, “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Slacker Donahue (Zac Efron) doesn’t really have anything going for him. He sees the news footage coming in from the front of the Vietnam conflict and worries that the negative stories, combined with the protests at home could be hurting morale for his buddies serving. When the Colonel (Bill Murray), a bartender and former soldier, says that he wishes he could buy all of the servicemen a beer, Chickie decides he’s the one to take it to them. He fills a duffle bag with some Buds and hops on a ship to Vietnam.
While there, he discovers that maybe the news being reported isn’t negative just for the sake of being negative, but that the line being told by the government doesn’t always match what is happening on the ground. And as he connects with old friends, he sees that they care less about being seen as heroes and more about simply surviving the conflict and making it back home to their loved ones.
The premise for the film is a fascinating one, but I’m not sure if Farrelly is the best person to tell it. While his films do have an inexplicable (to this reviewer, anyway) broad appeal, his ability to dig into the nuance of a story is sorely lacking. The comedic bits work well, but the shifts to the dramatic feel forced and clunky.
This isn’t helped by Efron’s performance as the protagonist. It takes a lot to be able to deliver both a lighthearted and emotional experience, and few actors are up to the task. Some of the more stoic moments are helped by Russell Crowe’s showing as Arthur Coates, one of the reporters Chickie meets, but a mediocre script can’t be saved by one decent performance. It’s not that the movie is bad. It’s not, it’s just that it feels like it never quite hits all of the emotional beats it is striving for.
Movies about the Vietnam War will always be a bit tricky to get right, especially given the complexities surrounding that period. Trying to add a light-hearted element to it can make that even more difficult.
It has been done well in the past. “Good Morning, Vietnam” walked that line to near perfection, both in the script and in Robin Williams’s performance. Farrelly may have been trying to replicate that success here, but “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” may have hit the bottle a little too hard before starting its stroll down the line.
ALISE CHAFFINS is a Morgantown writer who loves movies and sharing her opinions. She reviews a movie from a streaming service every Saturday and one newly in theaters every Sunday. Find more at MacGuffin or Meaning on Substack.
