Pabst Blue Ribbon plays a supporting role in the movie 'The Greatest Beer Run Ever,' a true-story Vietnam drama starring Zac Efron

In 1967, a guy from New York City set out on a sure-it-sounds-crazy-now mission:

Go to Vietnam, find buddies in uniform from the neighborhood and bring beer from home to drink with them — to show them people at home are thinking about them.

The beer? Milwaukee's own Pabst Blue Ribbon.

That mission — and a short film co-produced by Pabst decades later — inspired the new movie "The Greatest Beer Run Ever," starring Zac Efron as John "Chickie" Donohue, the man who made the beer run.

Directed and co-written by Peter Farrelly ("Green Book," "There's Something About Mary"), "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" opens in a limited number of theaters on Sept. 30, the same day the movie debuts on Apple TV+.

And PBR appears to have a supporting role — in the movie at least.

The poster and promos for "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" feature Efron parachuting into Vietnam atop a giant can of Pabst Blue Ribbon, with a duffel bag full of PBRs on hand (and one in hand).

Scenes in the trailer show Efron tossing, and tossing down, PBRs with soldiers behind the lines, in the thick of battle and even from a helicopter.

Bill Murray plays the bartender who first gives Efron the idea, and Russell Crowe co-stars as a war correspondent in Vietnam who sets his character straight on the war.

In an interview earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival, Farrelly told Deadline.com that he first got interested in Donohue's story after seeing "Pabst Blue Ribbon Presents: The Greatest Beer Run Ever," a 12-minute documentary by Andrew Muscato about Donohue and his buddies that was produced by Pabst Blue Ribbon and commercial filmmaker Makuhari Media.

In the short documentary, which is available on YouTube, Donohue tells his story with help from the guys he brought those beers to in 1967, in a reunion in a New York City bar in 2015.

In 1967, Donohue was a merchant seaman who, upset that antiwar protesters were detracting from the heroic efforts of buddies who were in uniform in Vietnam, lets himself get talked into the idea of grabbing a bunch of local beer and taking it to Vietnam, where he somehow would track down guys from the neighborhood and give them a brew.

Along the way, he has some adventures, including getting caught in a firefight and being stuck in Saigon during the Tet offensive. There are lighter moments, too, like when he surprises his buddies in the middle of a war zone looking like someone who should not be in a war zone.

In an interview in the documentary, Donohue says he brought along a case of Pabst. In the 2015 reunion, while recounting some of the zanier (and scarier) moments from Donohue's unlikely road trip, he and his buddies are all sitting at the bar, each with a can of Pabst in front of them.

"Needless to say," Donohue says in the short, "it was a while before I had to pay for my own beer."

However, the 2020 book version of Donohue's story serves up more than PBR. Turns out other Milwaukee-connected brewers may have been in on the action, too.

In "The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty and War," Donohue  (with co-author J.T. Molloy) writes that, when a chance to hop a ship headed for Vietnam turned up at the last minute, he dashed to a bar near the dock to buy as much local beer as he could carry.

"I asked him to include New York brands such as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Schaefer, Schlitz, Piels, Ballantine and Rheingold," Donohue wrote. " … I felt assured that I could replenish my supply with the bigger American brands like Budweiser and Miller once I got there. But I wanted to bring some hometown favorites."

"When I told (the bartender) where I was bringing it, he gave me a great price," Donohue said.

Contact Chris Foran at chris.foran@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cforan12.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Pabst Blue Ribbon plays supporting role in 'Greatest Beer Run Ever'