KCR: We Were Soldiers (DVD, War)

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Col. Hal Moore (ret.)

One of the most balanced movies about Vietnam, albeit dramatized. Most of the incidents in the movie did happen, albeit slightly embellished. Hal Moore, the real one, wrote a book about his experience, called "We Were Soldiers Once... And young" (and yes, I have the book). The movie is actually amazingly faithful to the book for the most part. The final scenes were a bit too dramatized and deux ex machina.

The book actually discusses two separate battles... US may have gotten too confident after Hal Moore's "victory". Three days later, in another valley, another company was decimated. The book was meticulously researched. Moore and Galloway collaborated, and went back to Vietnam and interviewed many of the people who were there, esp. the North Vietnamese commanders. The movie didn't even cover HALF of it, but then, it didn't need to. The battle itself is enough for a whole movie.

Every detail was absolutely authentic and accurate... even the wounds and death. The director, Wallace (the same guy who did Braveheart) have a knack depicting war, and this movie is lauded by veterans for being so accurate it hurts. There is a bit of fiction and flubbing involved, but then, EVERY movie does that. In a war movie about a real event, reality should be at least 80%, and this movie got it right. Furthermore a war movie needs to be about war, with something about people, and not glorify the war itself.  (The Thin Red Line was too much about people and not enough about war, and movies like The Green Berets are just too propaganda-ish). This movie got the balance right.

People who think this movie glorifies war does not understand it. This movie is about ONE battle, and the people fighting it, both on the battlefield and on the homefront. There is no glory in death, but there is honor in a battle well fought, and a promise to leave no one behind.

Rating: Watch it at least once. I have it in my collection