We Were Soldiers (2002)

The story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War and the soldiers on both sides that fought it.

Director:

Randall Wallace

Writers:

Harold G. Moore (book), Joseph L. Galloway (book),

Stars:

Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear

1 win & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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
Duong Don	...	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

Storyline

In a place soon to be known as The Valley of Death, in a football field-sized clearing called landing zone X-Ray, Lt. Colonel Hal Moore and 400 young troopers from the elite newly formed American 7th "Air" Cavalry, were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers dug into the tunnel warren mountainside. The ensuing battle was one of the most savage in U.S. history and is portrayed here as the signal encounter between the American and North Vietnamese armies. We Were Soldiers Once... And Young is a tribute to the nobility of those men under fire, their common acts of uncommon valor, and their loyalty to and love for one another.

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Plot Keywords:

soldier | battle | vietnamese | 2000s | air cavalry | 

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Taglines:

400 U.S paratroopers. 4000 Vietnamese soldiers. 12 000 miles away from home. 1 man led them into battle.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | History | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sustained sequences of graphic war violence, and for language

Details

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English Vietnamese French

Release Date:

1 March 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

We Were Soldiers Once... and Young

Filming Locations:

Castle Green Apartments - 99 S. Raymond, Pasadena, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$75,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$319,086 (Brazil) (9 August 2002)

Gross:

$495,567 (Brazil) (16 August 2002)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Icon Entertainment International, Motion Picture Production GmbH & Co. Erste KG, Wheelhouse Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

138 min 126 min (cut) 124 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

DTS-ES Dolby Digital EX SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A good amount of the musical score is based around the song "Sgt. McKensie", which plays during the closing credits of the film.

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Goofs

In the scene where the soldiers are celebrating being sent to war, the Sam Moore and Dave Prater Jr. song "Hold On, I'm Coming" is playing at the party. This song was actually not released until five months after the battle of La Trang, in March 1966.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Joe Galloway: [Narrating; voice-over] These are the true events of November, 1965, the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam, a place our country does not remember, in a war it does not understand. This story's a testament to the young Americans who died in the valley of death, and a tribute to the young men of the People's Army of Vietnam who died by our hand in that place. To tell this story, I must start at the beginning. But where does it begin? Maybe in June of 1954 when French Group Mobile 100 moved ...

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Crazy Credits

A list of the names of the actual men who died during the battle as well as the city and state where they are from is featured before the ending credits.

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Connections

Features Flight of the Intruder (1991)

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Soundtracks

"Mansions of the Lord"
By Nick Glennie-Smith and Randall Wallace
Performed by the United States Military Academy Cadet Glee Club
Also performed by Metro Voices
Produced by Nick Glennie-Smith

User Reviews

A Movie that Depicts Real Events

I for one am someone who was inspired to read the book "We were Soldiers Once and Young" after seeing this movie. WWS is about a distinct event that actually happened. SGM Plumley was a soldier's soldier, with five combat jumps in three wars and an astounding three combat infantry badges. LTC Moore was the sort of leader who could keep his head and lead his troops through the worst of battle. People who complain of clichés in this movie might as well complain that people in 18th century movies wear three-cornered hats.

To those looking for an anti-war message, it is there. When Moore goes to Division headquarters and gets his mission, he asks about projected enemy in his area of operations. The staff officer standing next to the general says "a manageable number." To this Moore responds with words to the effect of "which means you have no idea." It turns out that Moore's battalion gets dropped on top of a vastly larger enemy force (if I remember correctly, they get dropped right next to an NVA brigade). Ordinarily, it order to assure success in attack, you want to have three times the numbers of your enemy. In this case, the ratio was 4:1 going the other way. Then the battle is about how artillery and air support makes up the difference in numbers.

The obvious criticism here is that the command was fumbling around in the dark. At the end of the movie, the names of the 70+ men who died are prominently displayed on the screen. A military mind is not treasonous and will not disrespect its superiors, but it will let facts speak for themselves.

The next comment is only tangentially related to this movie. However, many voices here have taken the opportunity to vent their views on Vietnam, so I feel compelled to put things in a broader historical context.

There was a war that did not take place between 1945 and the fall of the Berlin wall. It would have been called WWIII. The Soviet Union and the US stood eye-to-eye for 40+ years, but did not blink. It was an ideological conflict with an evil that meant death to 50+ million people in communist countries in this century. It was conflict with a system that vastly constrained freedom. Fortunately for the world, the US finally prevailed. The struggle fought between communism and the west was fought in a variety of ways: in public relations, in sports, in propaganda, and in a series of proxy wars. In Korea, Greece, Vietnam, Afghanistan and a variety of smaller stages, East contested with West. To the people caught up in these local conflicts, these wars were absolute tragedies. However, in the grand scheme of things, these conflicts pale to insignificance when compared to the 500,000,000 who would have died in WWIII.