History Buffs: We Were Soldiers

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hello and welcome history buffs my name is Nick Hodges and today's review will be We Were Soldiers based on the book we were soldiers once and young by leftenant general hound war and war journalist Joseph Galloway this is the story about America's first major battle in the Vietnam War where 400 American soldiers were surrounded by an NVA division of 4,000 men in the central highlands of Vietnam unlike its more notable predecessors though this is a Vietnam War movie that is more focused on the history behind the conflict rather than the controversial politics we have come to expect so taking a back seat are the f-bombs the n-words and the g words and put at the forefront instead are the tactics and strategies of the real battles and the men who fought them all necessary ingredients to making a good historical film but there is a guarantee a good Vietnam War movie well let's find out in We Were Soldiers so the film begins in 1964 at the height of the Cold War the Western world's eyes were locked on a remote corner of Southeast Asia called Vietnam gone were the days of its French imperialism and a new question formed on everyone's mind would Viet Nam's future ultimately be based under a regime of capitalism or communism following the end of the Indochina war a ceasefire was agreed upon by French and Viet Minh forces at the Geneva Conference of 1954 was then decided that Vietnam was to be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel with the Communist north and a capitalist south this was under promise that France would withdraw from the conflict and the country officially ending decades of French imperial rule there was also to be an election 1956 for a single Vietnamese government to reunify the country however America chose to misinterpret the temporary ceasefire as temporary preferring much more instead to consider it as a permanent division between a communist north and a capitalist south the reason behind this thinking was that the North was predicted to win the 1956 election due to its higher population America's main fear was that if Vietnam was to be unified under a single communist government then communism would eventually spread throughout the whole of Southeast Asia so it comes as no surprise when the reunification election was cancelled and this was probably the biggest spark that ignited the Vietnam War and this is where the movie kicks in by 1964 America wasn't officially involved in Vietnam but it had been supporting the south of military aid and advisors for quite some time however it didn't escape them that this conflict will inevitably escalates and result with their direct military involvement so prepared for this by rethinking its tactics and introducing new technologies most notably the helicopter which would give him a huge advantage in being able to convince for is absolutely anywhere out of this its economic wealth and its position as a superpower America was confident of an easy victory within a matter of months when making we were soldiers Randall Wallace the writer and director of the film has one main objective when reading the book in which the film must be based on he came across a passage talking about the Vietnam War which said Hollywood got it wrong every damn time with these words in mind he focused on trying to get it right and that is certainly a noble undertaking I mean I wish more filmmakers thought this way now regarding the passage I can kind of understand where that book is coming from the thing is that when we think of the Vietnam War what do we usually think of apart from it obviously having the best soundtrack of all time we think of the quintessential Vietnam War movie and our mind usually wandered to a select few from the 70s and 80s the main ones being Apocalypse Now deer hunter platoon four metal jackets and casualties of war all of them without a doubt are some of the best films in American cinema but were they made in mind to accurately portray the Vietnam War probably not instead the main focus of those movies is to betray the insanity of war and the loss of innocence history takes a backseat in these historical depictions and political and philosophical motifs are at the forefront to be analyzed instead now despite them not being accurate they certainly were authentic and captured the chaos and brutality of that conflict however these films are so ingrained into pop culture that scenes that once moved us I'll make us loss Wow scenes that one shocked us now just generally entertain and amuse us and why not these characters and that performances are just as crazy and eccentric as the movies themselves they they're really fun to watch do you suck dicks sir no sir are you a peter-puffer sir no sir I'll bet you're the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around I'll be watching you I mean even if someone who has never seen any of these movies they will still recognize them when they're on screen and because they're so over-the-top their initial success has in a way let our interpretation of the Vietnam War to become slightly stylizing I'm going for the flag you shouldn't do that why not we've got to choose our moment carefully let's just swarm in with ice then I'll just in the jungle yeah now am I saying that we were soldiers is better than those movies of course not what I'm saying is that it was made with historical accuracy in mind and for all intents and purposes it mostly succeeds some of the most horrific moments in the film were recreated under the supervision of leftenant general Hal Moore a Joseph Galloway who were in the actual battle one scene in particular stands out and from the waitress of Galloway describes it they definitely got those scenes right and in that flame I could see these two men dancing and screaming and someone yelled get this man's beat and I reached down and picked him up and his boots crumbled the flesh on his ankles just peeled off I could feel ankle bone in the palm of my hands and we carried him over to where the wounded were was a young specialist named Jim Nakayama out of Rigby Idaho married wife had a baby that week he died two days later now as much as Randall Wallace makes a big deal about wanting to get it right there's one scene in the movie that completely contradicts that objective now if you want to make historically accurate film then you have to be authentic to the times in which it's set in and it seems like this that pisses me off to no end the laundromat in town is okay but they won't let you wash it color things in their machines a public laundromat didn't make any sense to me either but I'm telling you they have a big sign right in the window says whites only how did they mean white people only that's awful your husband is we're in the uniform of a country that allows a place to to say that his laundry's not good enough when he could die for I'm sorry I just mess all right honey movie are you seriously trying to tell me that this woman is so fucking gormless that she's only learning about racial segregation now it's 1964 it's the height of the civil rights movement one of the biggest and most influential political movements in US history she should know this stuff simply by being alive honestly what was going through her mind when she was watching the march in Washington in 1963 I have a dream but one thing oh my god this guy's like so boring why they don't tell me that what's this there's no racism in this country unless they like some sort of like a liberal agenda or something I'm gonna change the channel all the cartoons although we were soldiers is predominantly based on the battle the odd Rhine Valley it actually summarises really well how the world's greatest superpower was defeated this scene in particular speaks volumes about America's overconfidence and ill-fated decision to underestimate its enemy and especially its military victories in the past now this just could be potential French bashing but I'm gonna give this movie the benefit of the doubt because this kind of arrogance is exactly what the mindset of America's leaders was prior to the war if they bother to take the threat of North Vietnam seriously they would then understand that they were facing an enemy with twenty years of combat experience on its own ground and an enemy that had successfully defeated Japanese occupation World War two and the French in the first Indochina war yes cave men in black pajamas managed to defeat both the empires of Japan and France but America chose to ignore this because it was convinced that just it's aerial power alone would simply bomb North Vietnam into submission by the war's end they had dropped more bombs than all the Allied and Axis powers did in World War two and in the end did achieve very little once in Vietnam another problem came up where aside from difficulties with its jungle environment American troops had no real fixed objectives to take this wouldn't be like World War two where they would take one position then move on to the next so instead they operated under Search and Destroy missions simple ordered hell find the enemy and killer and it didn't take long before the Vietnamese discovered flaws in their execution as shown in the movie the Americans would usually bomb an area with either artillery or air strikes to prepare a landing zone for its soldiers once they arrived by helicopter they would then combed the surrounding area to hunt down enemy combatants however all this really did was alert the North Vietnamese that the Americans were on their way they might as well have shot up a giant flower in the sky to mark their position because they both pretty much achieve the same thing in the end as any advantage and surprise was lost it was through this very way that the Vietnamese were able to predict exactly when and where the Americans would attack another thing is that this allowed the Vietnamese to choose whether or not they wanted to fight since many of their bases were built underground if they decided not to fight then they would just let the Americans walk right by them and all the engagements in Vietnam war most were chosen by the North Vietnamese another advantage that the North Vietnamese had over the Americans was the will to fight now I'm not trying to downplay their importance of courage but the fact of the matter is that many of the American soldiers were draftees and the average conscript simply wanted to do his years of service and just get back home alive whereas a North Vietnamese soldier absolutely believed they were fighting for their country and not just for communism as America believed at the time there's a minor character in the movie that really helps show the average NVA soldiers commitment to fighting this war we see a young man writing to his wife on the front line before the second day of the battle now there's nothing especially intimidating about this man he's quite thin and wears glasses and overall just appears to be an average guy and he appears even more so the next time we see him we can tell that he's completely terrified by the way he hesitates shaking this notion that the American soldiers are dealing with suicidal fanatics and not with genuine human beings who are just as scared as they are just by us seeing him right to his wife we know that this character has something to live for and yet without hesitation he throws it all away with a bayonet charge this small character personifies North Vietnam on shaking will and determination to resist this foreign power so what was America's answer in fighting and defeating such an enemy well this is summarized perfectly and we were soldiers over the course of the movie we see almost non-stop fighting as the Americans gun down wave after wave of NVA and Viet Cong soldiers this film truly captures how horrific and intense this battle was and it can't be stated enough the bravery it took for both the Americans and the Vietnamese to fight in such appalling conditions amiss napalm and artillery strike - machine gun fire - sometimes fighting with just their bare hands it really must have been hell on earth and so when the Americans finally prevail and win the battle the aftermath is almost as shocking as the battle itself was wheeze and audience are given time to breathe and really think about what we just watched this is after all a reenactment of a battle that really took place and with all this death and destruction we witnessed what did it really achieve in the end well the American certainly achieved their original objective of finding their enemy and killing him they claimed victory is seen as even more incredible by the fact that they survived against such terrible odds however in the immediate aftermath of the battle when the Americans pack up their dead and wounded they leave and the North Vietnamese come right back in and what follows is without a doubt my favorite scene in the entire film this little moment right here not only encompasses the harsh reality of this battle but also alludes it is what is to come or not intelligent alcohol Rocko Chennai search at a life coach income maybe I could buy zoom now Martinez it Saturday to kitchen Palin off this battle would set the precedent for how the rest of this ward be fought by America without clear objectives to take the Americans would instead claim their victories not by territory gained but by body count their theory being that this method of attrition would prove to be the decisive point in winning this world I'm thinking of the intent of the mission there's everything we've fought in the past has been to gain ground yes but you know the basic mission of any military force is to destroy the enemy or his will to fight and it's been our tradition since we were tied to the ground to translate that into terms of ground objectives but that was never the real purpose that just helped you achieve the end here we can free ourselves of those ground considerations and we go more directly for the enemy wherever he may be what was originally thought to be won within a matter of months lasted eight years for the United States and claimed the lives of over 58,000 Americans untold millions of Vietnamese in the end it was instead the American people who lost their will to fight sick of an endless cycle of violence and empty promises of a victory within sight in 1973 the United States finally submitted to public pressure and withdrew from the war and within two years South Vietnam was finally annexed by the north overall I'd say that we were soldiers is a good historical movie to watch once i started researching the battle the art drank valley it was clear to me how much the filmmakers respected the source material and their attempt to make this battle as true to life as possible really shows on the screen and i also have to applaud and recognize Randall Wallace's decision to present us with a non-biased film taking the time and the effort to highlight the courage and the sacrifice both the Americans and the Vietnamese made in this tragic battle however I can't ignore key moments here and there that really ruin my viewing experience it really baffles me as to why they're even there in the first place because I'd be enjoying what's going on in the movie and then they would spoil it by going so over-the-top like this really out of place scene that is so brimming with American patriotism it makes my eyes roll to the back of my head they're like right I'm true and not two seconds later they slap in another generic war movie death scene so much life come on I know it sounds like I'm nitpicking here but this is so cliched if you have to write a death scene don't do it an original way this feels like it's just ticking a box of what to include in a war movie there's a reason why we make fun of death scenes like this the boyfriend and don't get me started on any scenes with the kids their performances and the writing feels so forced and artificial it makes me cringe every time it's on screen the decision I'm putting them there must have been like how do we get the audience to care about how more I know let's make us kids as cute as possible they could walk around in his jump boots and sing bingo bingo bingo was his name-o just a fucking stupid it really takes me out of the movie and that makes it that much harder for me to tell you to watch it as for this performance I have no idea why they decided to go with this tape rather than inspiring empathy it just honestly makes me laugh anyway aside from these various hiccups we were sold to successes outweigh its mistakes in the long run whether they truly got it rises up for debate but any true history buff will be able to see that at least they tried Randall Wallace may have disregarded the politics we have come to expect from a Vietnam War movie but special care and attention was made instead to accurately recreate an important battle from a very controversial war and the fact that we were soldiers goes beyond that to summarize that entire conflict and its inevitable outcome shows us the maturity and dedicated research that went into its execution my only true complaint is that I wish Randall Wallace made that same effort when writing Braveheart but that perhaps best left for another review for another day well that about wraps it up my name is Nick Hodges and thanks for watching history buffs and remember if you like the show help the channel grow don't forget to hit that like and subscribe button and let me know the comments section as well what you thought about we were soldiers and of course what historical film should I review next until then I'll see you next time you

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Channel: History Buffs

Views: 3,141,625

Rating: 4.4920292 out of 5

Keywords: History (TV Genre), History Buffs, We Were Soldiers (Film), Historically Accurate, Historically Inaccurate, Historical film review

Id: 6ABJVrRfr2Q

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Length: 25min 19sec (1519 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 01 2015

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