We Were Soldiers
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We Were Soldiers is a 2002 war film that dramatized the Battle of Ia Drang, the first major battle of the Vietnam War which took place in November 1965. It was directed by Randall Wallace and stars Mel Gibson. It is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once...And Young by Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, who were at the battle.
Plot Summary
Commanding the air calvary unit, Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Mel Gibson), is a born leader committed to his troops that is getting ready for the first battle of the Vietnam War. The story line is how he leads his men into the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam. The story also talks about the minor plot back at home where Moore's wife (Madeleine Stowe) along with some other wives of soldiers take over the job of delivering death letters to the soldier's relatives that live in the military complex. Before leaving the training base camp in America, Moore delivers a touching speech to his unit. He mentions that the U.S. forces will all come home together and that he will leave no one behind, and also promise to be the first to set foot on the battlefield and the last one to leave. The night before their departure for vietnam a sort of a party for the officers asigned to the mission is celebrated. In this passage Col. Moore learns from a superior officer that his unit will be known as the 7th regiment, he feels a little bit odd because the resemblance of his mission to that of Custer who coincidentially commanded the 7th Cavalry regiment as his dreaded hour in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The story then goes to the gruesome battle that switches between the Vietnamese and American forces view. In the movie, the Vietnamese troops were treated with respect (see below in Debates). At the end of the three days of fighting, the seemingly victorious G.I.'s leave. Moore is the last one to leave the Vietnamese soil, once he's been assured that all his men dead or alive had left the battlefield.Debates
We Were Soldiers is often regarded as one of the few films, along with John Wayne's The Green Berets (1968), to offer a positive representation of the American presence in Vietnam. However, the movie is somewhat ambivalent about the morality of the war, presenting the North Vietnamese army as a capable and brave opponent, and concluding with a statement that the U.S. soldiers did not fight for their country, but for each other. Some scenes toward the end of the movie are clearly anti-war in their depiction of the horror of the fighting, as well as the graphic depiction of the loss of life. The film also showed how political strife at home crept into the war, and comprimised the lives of American soldiers. Moore detested this and even disregarded orders from his superiors when they were politically motivated.
Cast
- Mel Gibson - Lt. Col. Hal Moore
- Madeleine Stowe - Julie Moore
- Greg Kinnear - Maj. Bruce 'Snake' Crandall
- Sam Elliott - Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley
- Chris Klein - 2nd Lt. Jack Geoghegan
- Keri Russell - Barbara Geoghegan
- Barry Pepper - Joe Galloway
- Don Duong - Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu An
- Ryan Hurst - Sgt. Ernie Savage
- Robert Bagnell - 1st Lt. Charlie Hastings
- Marc Blucas - 2nd Lt. Henry Herrick
- Josh Daugherty - Sp4 Robert Ouellette
- Jsu Garcia - Capt. Tony Nadal
- Jon Hamm - Capt. Matt Dillon
- Clark Gregg - Capt. Tom Metsker
External links
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