Author Topic: We Were Soldiers (Read 536 times)

Creamo · « **on:** March 22, 2002, 01:01:22 AM »

Talked the wife out of “Ice Age” to see this. (Is she great or what!)

Man, intriguing flick.

The first scene was as real as I could guess, and then the subsequent battle scenes were something else, if not down right misleading? I just can’t imagine Vietnam like that. Not that it wasn’t horrible, but could it be true they actually made it through that?

Great stuff, although it seemed like ‘Braveheart’ in a jungle.

The trailer for the Nick Cage movie was as good. Can’t wait for that one.

Anyone see it? Comments?

Eagler · « **Reply #1 on:** March 22, 2002, 06:53:39 AM »

saw it with last Friday. Good movie but one of those that leaves you in a not so great mood. I think the war was just like that. Idiotic. Sacrifice good men to take some stinking peace of land, fly in the press and big wigs, everyone chopper out and the VC had it back < 24hrs after we left. Wasted lives, for nothing as it was fought by politicans and inept militiary leaders.
Sad
Should have been called "We Were Political Puppets"

Hortlund · « **Reply #2 on:** March 22, 2002, 08:07:19 AM »

Quote

Sacrifice good men to take some stinking peace of land, fly in the press and big wigs, everyone chopper out and the VC had it back < 24hrs after we left

I dont get it. What is so strange with leaving the battlefield for VC to reinfiltrate within the next 24 hours?

Vietnam was not a war about territorial control, just as the war in Afghanistan is not today. What would possibly be achieved with maintaining territorial control over vast areas of the country? Any counterinsurgency war will be won or lost in the "hearts and minds" of the general population. Territorial control can be a tool to help achieve that goal, but it is not an end in itself.

Lance · « **Reply #3 on:** March 22, 2002, 08:28:13 AM »

In terms of being surrounded, surprised and way outnumbered, all of that was true. They made it through the fight in large part due to our helicopter units, artillery and close air suport. Without that, it would have been a massacre.

I know for a fact that the charge on the final morning was fictional. In reality, they were reinforced in the night and cut the final Vietnamese attack to pieces. The charge made for a more dramatic climax, I guess.

Also, Ia Drang really included two fights. The first happened at LZ Xray which was depicted in the film. The second happened when some of the units were moving to LZ Albany for extraction after the fight at XRay. This part of the battle was even bloodier for the U.S (151 killed compared to 79 at LZ Xray) and was not depicted at all in the film.

I liked the movie. I think whatever its inaccuracies are, it probably did capture the experience of what the men went through. Several soldiers involved at Ia Drang (not just Hal Moore & Galloway, who wrote the book) have said as much in interviews.

Kratzer · « **Reply #4 on:** March 22, 2002, 09:45:29 AM »

I thought it was pretty well done, though it did have some issues with being a bit too cliched in some areas, and in some of the behaviour of the US soldiers (e.g. running around the battle field upright, exposing themselves needlessly, etc.)

Overall I enjoyed it.

You should go see Ice Age too - my wife and I went Sunday, and enjoyed it a lot!

Charon · « **Reply #5 on:** March 22, 2002, 12:35:34 PM »

It was by the Pearl Harbor writer I believe, so I have been a bit reluctant to see it so far. I can't imagine it's anywhere near Blackhawk Down and I have already used up the "war movie" alottment with the wife for a while. It' time to see some of her movies now

(I did try to play Pearl Harbor off as a chick flick, she wasn't buying though. It really falls in the POS category anyway).

Charon

Kratzer · « **Reply #6 on:** March 22, 2002, 12:41:55 PM »

It is a very different experience than Pearl Harbor.

Not as gritty and realistic as blackhawk down, but still quite good.

midnight Target · « **Reply #7 on:** March 22, 2002, 12:58:18 PM »

A little more Viet Nam insight:

My coworker was an A4 Marine pilot in VN. I guess every pilot has to do a stint as a forward observer, so he spent some time on the ground too.
He showed me a citation he wrote for an observation pilot. I guess the way it worked was...the ground observer would contact the observation pilot (flying a cessna or bronco) who would contact the fast movers with the ordinance.
Anyway....he was pinned down and the enemy was within 50 yards. He called the observation pilot, and asked for a napalm drop. The observation pilot knew the drop had to be accurate, so he got in REAL low and relayed the exact coordinants to the Marine Jabos. My coworker was in a trench when the napalm was dropped within 30 yards of his location.
The request for citation was written for the observation pilot because of the danger he faced by flying so low to determin the drop location. The observation pilot was instead formally reprimanded for his reckless behavior. Go figure.

Dinger · « **Reply #8 on:** March 22, 2002, 01:27:22 PM »

Read the book and saw the movie.
The movie is a turd.
The scriptwriter should be shot.
My advice: if you're intrigued by the events, check out the book. You'll get a battalion of guys in a tiny clearing against something like a regiment of NVA.
you won't get crappy, oversentimental direction and scriptwriting that insults us all. (see 3-yr-old daughter, "Daddy, what's a war?"
you won't get Greg Kinnear swapping his slicks for a gunship and hovering in front of the infantry charge to mow down an NVA AA gun.

Charon, go with your gut on this one. BHD is a much better film, directorially, script-wise, and hollywood-wise. Read the book -- it's an interesting read.

Charon · « **Reply #9 on:** March 22, 2002, 02:04:56 PM »

Quote

Greg Kinnear swapping his slicks for a gunship and hovering in front of the infantry charge to mow down an NVA AA gun...
Dinger

Oh man, it sounds just like Pearl Harbor all over again. I'm seriously thinking of changing my handle to "Rafe" BTW

Charon

Dune · « **Reply #10 on:** March 22, 2002, 03:48:56 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Dinger

you won't get Greg Kinnear swapping his slicks for a gunship and hovering in front of the infantry charge to mow down an NVA AA gun.

Actually, I remember Toad of AGW talking about watching a Cobra do just that.

Charon · « **Reply #11 on:** March 22, 2002, 05:16:40 PM »

Dune, I think he was commenting on having a handful of the movie's action heros do all the "cool" stuff, whether it made any sense for them to do it, or even if they could do it in the first place -- like fighter pilots Rafe and Danny boy going on the Doolittle raids, Rafe flying for the RAF pre-war as an active military transfer (while we had some pretty strict neutrality laws) , etc.

Charon

SirLoin · « **Reply #12 on:** March 22, 2002, 07:23:57 PM »

I thought it was very good(except for the first 40 minutes which was slow)...Every bit as good as Black Hawk Down.

Bluefish · « **Reply #13 on:** March 22, 2002, 07:50:21 PM »

I actually thought Soldiers was better than BHD, since the action sequences were about equal (possibly a bit of an edge to BHD in terms of cinematography) but Soldiers had a storyline and some character development.

It was probably impossible to make sense in a movie context of that FUBAR mission in Somalia, but I'd previously read the book and I still found it virtually impossible to follow what was going on in BHD.

I did get a bit tired of that "Lay me doun..." Scottish dirge in Soldiers, though.

Creamo · « **Reply #14 on:** March 22, 2002, 11:25:12 PM »

Well, real or not, it's a good movie. The last charge thinng sure did scream hollywood, but I doubt anyone believed it.

And I went to Ice Age today Kratzer. That is a pretty funny movie, we enjoyed it as well. I had to recheck the credits to see if Saintaw was mentioned for inspiring "Sid the Sloth." (When you see the movie, you'll get the joke, heh)