From USA Today:
“John 'Chickie' Donohue
fact-checks 'Greatest Beer Run Ever': 'This might have been a dumb thing to do'”
If you’re delivering booze to
your buddies in a war, street smarts can be helpful. That’s the most
fascinating aspect Zac Efron found about John “Chickie” Donohue, the real-life
guy he plays in “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” (now streaming on Apple TV+). In
1967, the merchant seaman, then 26, brought his suds to his neighborhood pals
serving in Vietnam. In the movie, members of the military assume he’s with the
CIA, and Chickie doesn’t correct them as he makes his improbable trip. The
onscreen character mostly maintains his cool. But Efron? “I would be terrified,”
the actor confesses. “I would cave in seconds.” Director Peter Farrelly agrees:
“That's probably the craziest thing, that he would do that. I'd be afraid
they'd blow my brains out.”
(Zac Efron (left) and John
"Chickie" Donohue attend "The Greatest Beer Run Ever"
premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.)
Ask Donohue about how he pulled
it off, and he credits his mustache. “The military don't have facial hair – at
least they didn't in those days,” he tells USA TODAY. “I don't remember the
letters ‘CIA’ ever mentioned, but they thought I was some sort of federal
agent. And when I was forced to tell them actually who I was, I'd tell them I
was a merchant mariner. Most of them didn't even know what the term meant, so
they just left me alone.” The crazy true story of “Beer Run” – based on Donohue
and J.T. Malloy’s 2017 memoir – was “the stupidest idea I've ever heard of,”
Farrelly says, explaining why he had to direct the film. “This is like ‘Dumb
and Dumber’ meets ‘Apocalypse Now.’ ” But it did actually happen, and Donohue,
81, attended the recent premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival
with all four friends he brought beers to on his epic quest. “It was like the
ultimate old man's Disney World: surrounded by beautiful women, no lines to
wait in and everything paid for,” he says of his big night.
Donohue breaks down the facts
(and occasional fiction) of key “Beer Run” moments:
Was Chickie's far-fetched
mission really inspired by a stirring bar speech?
(The Colonel (Bill Murray)
delivers a rousing speech about the boys over in Vietnam in "The Greatest
Beer Run Ever.")
In the film, Chickie’s out with
his friends at their local hangout when their bartender, The Colonel (Bill
Murray), takes issue with anti-war protesters calling American soldiers “baby
killers and murderers.” It was a scene that also played out in real life. “It
affected me. That, in addition to so many funerals and so many young guys who
had already died,” Donohue says. When the Colonel wished he could bring beers
to the boys over there, “I said, ‘All right, I can do that,”’ Donohue recalls.
And because of his experience as a former Marine and knowledge of military
lingo, “I knew I had a good chance of getting there.”
Did Chickie (played by Zac
Efron) actually haul a duffel bag of beer all the way to Vietnam?
(Chickie (Zac Efron, left) comes
bearing Pabst Blue Ribbon cans for servicemen in the war dramedy "The
Greatest Beer Run Ever.")
Efron’s Chickie packs up a duffel
bag with Pabst Blue Ribbon cans, heads to Vietnam and quickly finds his pal Tom
Collins (Archie Renaux) partying all night with his fellow MPs. But in reality,
the original stash didn’t make it. Donohue took a job in the engine room of a
World War II Victory ship for the monthlong voyage to Vietnam. “After a shift,
I would go upstairs and have a couple of beers. So if I had two beers for 31
days, that's what, 62 beers? That's a lot of beers,” he says. But he knew where
to get more once he arrived: “I went to the enlisted men's clubs and
refurbished the beer.”
The visiting civilian almost
sat in a pile of elephant poo
(John "Chickie" Donohue
(center, with sister Christine) at the Toronto Film Festival premiere of
"The Greatest Beer Run Ever" with the men he delivered suds to in
Vietnam: Kevin McLoone, Rick Duggan, Bobby Pappas and Tom Collins.)
In the movie, Chickie is on a road
late at night when a pack of elephants inexplicably walks in front of him. Next
thing he knows, a Jeep approaches; it turns out to be his friend Kevin McLoone
(Will Ropp), who’s shocked to see Chickie in the country. In real life, Donohue
randomly ran into McLoone, but “I didn't actually see elephants,” he admits. That
said, an earlier scene in which Chickie found pal Rick Duggan (Jake Picking)
and went to sit on what he thought was a rock actually happened. “He said,
‘That's not a rock, Chickie. That's elephant (poop).’ I said, ‘What the hell,
there's no elephants here.’ So he says, ‘Oh yeah, (the Viet Cong) use them to
carry their artillery and their heavy weapons.”’
Russell Crowe’s photographer
is an amalgam of personalities
(Arthur (Russell Crowe, left) and
Chickie (Zac Efron) get caught in a dangerous situation caused by the Tet
Offensive in "The Greatest Beer Run Ever.")
In Saigon, Chickie meets
photojournalist Arthur Coates (Crowe), who helps him when things get hairy
during the Tet Offensive and wants Chickie to tell folks back in America what’s
really happening in Vietnam. Coates is a composite of people Donohue met there,
including journalists and also a businessman who sold computers to the
Vietnamese government. As in “Beer Run,” Donohue would often talk with them at
the rooftop bar of the Caravelle Hotel. “I had a concern about them throwing a
hand grenade or something into the restaurant, (but) I didn't know anybody even
playing for the Yankees who could throw a ball that high,” Donohue says.
Chickie saw the truth of war
up close and personal
(Chickie (Zac Efron, left)
realizes he's in over his head visiting his friend Rick (Jake Picking) in
"The Greatest Beer Run Ever.")
The film is mostly a lighthearted
adventure until Chickie visits Rick, has to run for his life during an ambush
and spends the night in a foxhole. Like his onscreen counterpart, Donohue felt
in danger for the first time. “I realized this might have been a dumb thing to
do (but) there was no turning back,” he says. The whole bonkers trip gave
Donohue a new perspective. His initial attitude of duty for to country became
“a big distrust of what our government and every government says. It was clear
that we weren't defending the United States of America. It was purely
political.”
^ I just watched this film. It
seemed very odd when you hear that it’s a true story and that a Civilian actually
went to South Vietnam to give beers to his Friends. ^
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