TV REVIEW : THREE SOLDIER STORIES

Vietnam may have been a flop for America as a war, but it’s been doing wonders for Hollywood’s movie studios.

Now the so-called “Living Room War” is returning to television with HBO’s 90-minute trilogy, “Vietnam War Story.” It debuts tonight at 9 as part of the pay-TV network’s “HBO Showcase” drama series, and each story will be repeated separately at various times during September.

Mercifully devoid of political preaching and naturalistically laced with soldier’s lingo and foul language, the stories, despite some overdramatic excesses, are blessed with many good dramatic performances from unknown young actors. The trilogy places its emphasis on personal heroics and feelings of kinship among soldiers whose main concern was keeping themselves and their buddies alive, not fragging their lieutenants or being stand-in philosophizers for screenwriters.

In “The Pass,” scriptwriter Patrick S. Duncan spins the tale of three U.S. soldiers with varying degrees of combat experience who head for a local whorehouse (Mama-San’s Chicago Club) for some only-on-HBO-type sexual R&R.; After much boozing and unenthusiastic lovemaking, war-weary grunt French (Wendell Pierce) decides to go AWOL by hiding out at Mama-San’s. Naturally, naive and action-hungry McCready (Tony Becker) tries to stop French, gets stuck there with him and--well, the hokey ending is best left unrevealed.

The only combat scenes are in “The Mine,” another somewhat contrived Duncan script, which was directed by actor Georg Stanford Brown, the trilogy’s executive producer. It’s about a guilt-ridden, previously wounded corporal (Eriq La Salle) who is uncooperative and unfriendly upon joining his new squad--until he finds himself standing on the kind of pressure-sensitive anti-personnel mine that doesn’t explode until you take your foot off.

“Home” is Ronald Rubin’s story of a group of disabled vets undergoing rehabilitation in a VA hospital. Nicholas Cascone shines as Zadig, a junior Alan Alda-type jokester/amputee who is a one-man spirit booster for the angry, bitter men in his ward.

“Home” has its moments of pathos and humor. But like its sister segments, which HBO says also are “inspired by real-life accounts,” it is ultimately a little too dramatically pat and is weakened by its heavily ironic ending.