The Greatest Beer Run Ever, now streaming on Apple TV+, is not your typical Vietnam War movie. Rather than a movie about the soldiers who were dying in the jungles—or about the locals whose lives were torn apart, or about the lasting trauma inflicted on both countries—this is a movie about the guy who voluntarily flew to Vietnam to deliver some beer. Not all heroes wear capes, I guess.
Directed by Peter Farrelly (Green Book, Dumb and Dumber), with a screenplay by Farrelly, Brian Currie, and Pete Jones, The Greatest Beer Run Ever stars Zac Efron as a man named John “Chick” Donohue, who is inspired by his local bartender to contribute to the war efforts by delivering beer overseas.
This is one of those stories that is both so fantastic but so deeply weird, that you just know it has to be true. And in this case, you’d be correct. The Greatest Beer Run Ever is, indeed, based on the true story of John Donohue. Read on to learn more about The Greatest Beer Run Ever true story.
IS THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER BASED ON A TRUE STORY?
Yes. The Greatest Beer Run Ever is based on the true story of John “Chick” Donohue. The script was adapted from Donohue’s 2017 self-published memoir, The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War, which he wrote with Joanna Molloy, a former reporter for The Daily News. Molloy also produced a short documentary about Donohue in 2015, also titled The Greatest Beer Run Ever, which was sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon and released on the company’s Youtube Channel.
WHO IS JOHN CHICK DONOHUE?
John “Chick” Donohue is an author and former union worker who, at the age of 75, self-published a memoir recounting the tale of that time he delivered beer to soldiers in the Vietnam War.
Donohue is a New Yorker who grew up in the Inwood neighborhood in Upper Manhattan. According to a 2017 New York Times profile written about him while he was promoting his book, he spent years regaling his friends and family with the story of his Vietnam War beer run—but rarely did his audience believe him. (Apparently, Donohue was known for telling tall tales.)
“For half a century, I’ve been told I was full of it, to the point where I stopped even telling this story,” he told the Times. So he teamed up with reporter Joanna Molloy and wrote a book. The book provided photos of, and interviews with, the Vietnam soldiers to whom Donohue delivered beer.
The story goes that Donohue was at a New York City bar on a November day in 1967, voicing his frustration regarding the anti-Vietnam war protests. The bartender— George Lynch, at Doc Fiddler’s in Inwood—agreed, and said someone ought to bring all the American soldiers a beer. So Donohue did.
“It took two months to get there, so I drank all the beer,” Donohue recalled, according to the Times. Once he arrived in Qui Nhon harbor and purchased more beer, he tracked down his friend Tom Collins (played by Archie Renaux in the movie) who was stationed with the 127th Military Police Company.
Collins remembered the incident in an interview for the book. “I said, ‘Chickie Donohue, what the hell are you doing here?’ He said, ‘I came to bring you a beer.’”
When it was first published in 2017, Donohue’s book did not garner much initial attention, so he arranged his own promotion tour. As a retired “sandhog” urban miner, he organized readings at union meetings and veterans groups, where he would sign and sell books for $10. But in 2019 Skydance Media bought the rights to adapt the book, and Peter Farrelly, following his Oscar for the based-on-the-true-story movie Green Book, came on to direct and produce.
So there you have it! Next time your friends don’t believe your wild stories, all you have to do is write a book, promote yourself, and, eventually, Zac Efron will be playing you in the movie. Apparently.
