We Were Soldiers

[easymo]

If you begin with the knowledge that Gibson's  father moved his family to Australia. For the express purpose of keeping his sons out of Vietnam.  The rest of the Hollywood nonsense falls right into place.

[Saintaw]

Aha, I'll be lookin for that Creamy pie (Ice Age)...picture me chuckling already.

[Toad]

Originally posted by Hortlund
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.

May I suggest A Better War by military historian Lewis Sorley.

I just finished this one; while it isn't as well written as one would expect from a "military historian" there is a lot of interesting, documented detail.

Abrams war plan was not Westmoreland's "body count" war plan; Sorley makes the case that Abrams was far more successful, indeed, even on the verge of real success. He's got something to back up his hypothesis with as well.

Give it a read and make up your own mind. Check Amazon.com for the book.

[Wanker]

Realizing that this is a Hollywood-ized version of what happened, I found the film to be very moving. If you go into it expecting it to be just like the book, you'll probably be disappointed. But from a purely dramatic angle, I thought it was very effective emotionally.

It's also one of the only films that depicts the "enemy" as real human beings.

[Mickey1992]

Not a bad movie.  I think that Pearl Harbor was even crappier after seeing Soldiers.  The last charge was really cheezy though.  It was odd to never see an M16 jam.

[easymo]

They must have got the ones with the chrome gas pistons. LOL