We Were Soldiers

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We Were Soldiers
Image:Weweresoldiers poster.jpg
We Were Soldiers movie poster
Directed by Randall Wallace
Produced by Arne L. Schmidt
Jim Lemley
Randall Wallace
Written by Harold G. Moore
Joseph L. Galloway (book)
Randall Wallace (screenplay)
Starring Mel Gibson
Madeleine Stowe
Greg Kinnear
Don Duong
Sam Elliott
Chris Klein
Keri Russell
Barry Pepper
Dylan Walsh
Distributed by Paramount Pictures (USA)
Icon Entertainment (International)
Release date(s) 2002-03-01 (USA)
Running time 138 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $75,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

We Were Soldiers is a 2002 war film that dramatized the Battle of Ia Drang in November 1965, the first major engagement of American troops in the Vietnam War. The film was directed by Randall Wallace and stars Mel Gibson. It is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, both of whom were at the battle.

Contents

[edit] Plot Summary

The movie opens with a French Army unit on patrol in Vietnam during the First Indochina War. The unit is ambushed by North Vietnamese forces and, although the unit kills many North Vietnamese, it is eventually overrun by the North Vietnamese. The wounded are executed by the North Vietnamese, who hypothesize that if they kill all the French soldiers and take no prisoners, then the French will eventually stop sending troops.

The film then goes forward several years, into 1965. Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) is a born leader committed to his troops who are 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 against numerically superior forces.

The story also talks about the toll being taken back at home where Moore's wife Julie (Madeleine Stowe) along with another wife take over the job of delivering telegrams informing relatives of soldiers deaths to relatives that live at Fort Benning, the units base of operation. Before leaving for service in Vietnam, Moore delivers a touching speech to his unit.

"I can't promise you that I will bring you all home alive, but this I swear: I will be the first one to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off. And I will leave no one behind. Dead, or alive, we all come home together. So help me God."

The night before their departure for Vietnam a sort of a party for the officers assigned to the mission is celebrated. In this passage LTC Moore learns from a superior officer that his unit will be known as the 1st Battalion / 7th cavalry regiment, he is disquieted because the 7th Cavalry regiment was the battalion commanded by General Custer when he and his unit was slaughtered at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and because Lyndon B. Johnson decreed that the war would be fought "on the cheap" without declaring it a national emergency, hence depriving Moore of his oldest, best-trained soldiers (a formal declaration of war would have meant mobilization and extension of the terms of enlistment for volunteer soldiers) - about 25% of his battalion - just prior to shipping for Vietnam.

The story then goes to the battle, one US battalion greatly outnumbered by an entire North Vietnamese division and switches between the Vietnamese and American forces view, as well as a subplot about a squad that is isolated and trapped in enemy territory. In the movie, the Vietnamese troops were treated with respect. At the end of the three days of fighting, the seemingly victorious G.I.'s leave. The movie puts a strong emphasis that Moore is the last one to set foot off the field of battle, once he's been assured that all his men dead or alive have been recovered from the battlefield.

[edit] Cast

Image:LTC-Hal.jpg
Gibson as LTC Hal Moore


[edit] Trivia

  • The mournful song heard during some of the aftermath and battle sequences is called Sgt. MacKenzie. An account of a Scottish soldier who fought in similar carnage, it was written by his descendant, Joseph Kilna MacKenzie. It was chosen for the film by Mel Gibson and Randall Wallace due to its haunting, desolate sound; of men prepared to stand their ground for family and friends.
  • The Irish dance tune Garryowen is mentioned several times in the movie. It was a popular tune in the 7th Cavalry Regiment during the 1800s, and became a battle cry in the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry in modern times.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

de:Wir waren Helden es:Fuimos soldados fr:Nous étions soldats hr:Bili smo vojnici it:We Were Soldiers - Fino all'ultimo uomo nl:We Were Soldiers ja:ワンス・アンド・フォーエバー no:We Were Soldiers pl:Byliśmy żołnierzami pt:We Were Soldiers ru:Мы были солдатами (фильм) sr:Били смо војници fi:Olimme sotilaita sv:We Were Soldiers zh:勇士們

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