Hamburger Hill: Apocalypse Now...But With Grunts?

Okay, so I just re-watched Hamburger Hill last night. Man, that film... It's brutal, right? I still remember seeing it back in the day and just being floored by how relentlessly grim it was. Forget your rah-rah, John Wayne type war movies, this was something else. I've been thinking about it, and I have a theory. Hear me out: Hamburger Hill, despite not being directed by Coppola or having insane visuals like Apocalypse Now, kinda captures that same descent-into-madness vibe. Think about it: those guys in Bravo Company, they're not fighting for some grand ideal, they're fighting for...a hill. A stupid hill that means nothing. And they keep getting chewed up and spat out. Reminds of the futility of Kurtz's war in Apocalypse Now and how the men became less human the more the war dragged on. And the rain? Reminds me of the rain scenes in Apocalypse Now. The grim reality gets washed ashore by the rain. Maybe I'm reaching, but there's something there. I think the fact that there's no real 'star' in Hamburger Hill actually helps this. It's about the unit, not some individual Rambo-esque hero. I mean, yeah, Dylan McDermott's there, and he was a heartthrob for a minute there, but he's just one of the guys. That facelessness, the constant barrage...it strips them down. It's that feeling of being trapped, like the characters are slowly losing it, that reminds me of the classic war films of the 70s. Anyway, that's my two cents. What do you all think? Am I totally off base, or is there something to this Apocalypse Now parallel? And, seriously, who directed this flick? No idea. lol