Hey folks, Harry here... What we have here is a review by a military man that really knows the situation that WE WERE SOLDIERS is depicting. Now, McMahon seems quite familiar with the policies of the time and the errors of their ways and how they were dealt with. He knows the actuality of the fighting men and how it all went down, but does he know his cinema. Is he allowing personal experiences to give added significance and to enhance what is on screen? We'll have to see. I see the film this coming Thursday and can't wait to see how this film is. So far it sounds pretty good. Here's McMahon...
Review: WE WERE SOLDIERS - 11 February 2002
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By Robert L. McMahon, President, SFTT.ORG
The film is based upon the 1992 best-seller, WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE... AND YOUNG by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, USA (Ret) and Joseph L. Galloway. It stars Mel Gibson as Lt. Col. Hal Moore, Sam Elliott and SGM. Basil L. Plumely, Barry Pepper as Joe Galloway and Madeline Stowe as Mrs. Julie Moore.
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If you're professional military, please take my advice - be a student of history. Study it like you do your weapon, your compass and your Guidebooks for NCO's and Officers. On a battlefield, if you have no appreciation for history and its context, you have no business leading yourself or anybody else into harm's way.
Lt. General Harold G. Moore, USA (Ret) made it his mission to be a student of history and this saved his life and the rest of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment in a dark corner of the world called LZ X-Ray on 14, 15,and 16 November in 1965. Critics of he and Joe Galloway's 1992 best-seller, have often said that this one engagement could serve as an allegory for our whole involvement in that conflict and that's not too far from the truth.
This film is unlike any Vietnam War film you have seen to date. The viewer's not treated to a brooding racial strife, drug culture or the sanctimonious piety of an anti-war movement. Randall Wallace, the producer and director of this film, stayed within the bounds of what the authors laid out: an epic struggle of young, scared men fighting to live to see another day. A struggle that had their fullest attention from the moment their boots hit the tall grass and heat of the Ia Drang Valley.
The actors privileged to play out this struggle are damn near brilliant. Mel Gibson gives a very steady and reserved portrayal of Lt. Col. Moore. What Mr. Gibson brought across to the viewer wasn't so much a "role" as he brought the genuine "character" of Hal Moore to the fore. Any actor can put on a show, but Mr. Gibson captured the intangibles of character very, very well.
His chief rock of support in the film is much like the real-life roles as well. It falls to the Battalion Sergeant Major, Basil L. Plumely, played to pure steel by Sam Elliott. Mr. Elliott's hard, laconic portrait of Sgt. Maj. Plumely is masterful. Our Army needs more of these Senior Staff NCO's who can give staff weenies and the "consideration of others" types the runs just by looking at them. Someone who, when asked by Hal Moore whether or not he's going to draw an M-16 says, "Too much plastic for me sir. I want something with a little more substance." I won't spoil it for you, but Sam Elliott has the best pieces of dialogue in the film. And does he chew the scenery well.
The film works on several other levels as well. Mr. Wallace has touched on many of the things that were wrong with that conflict and how the war was ultimately "managed". That's a key distinction between saying "fought" or "led". As General Moore would be only too willing to agree, "You cannot manage men in combat; they must be led."
The first policy tremor comes when Mel Gibson's Moore says to his CO, "Why haven't they extended enlistments? You know what this is going to do don't you? I've effectively lost a third of my men before we've seen any combat. How could they do this? They've just invested time and money into training one of their newest divisions, but when we ship out for combat it's okay to lose a third of your best, highly skilled and most experienced officers and troops because their enlistments are up. I don't understand it."
On the home front the thinking wasn't much better. As these young officers and men became casualties the Army wasn't prepared for that fact of life. Meaning, when a Western Union Telegram notifying a young wife that her husband was killed in action arrived, a taxi driver was sent to deliver it. No chaplain or accompanying officer was dispatched to ease the trauma.
And back at the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) the thinking was equally as poor. Several times during this fierce battle General Moore was ordered out to give a debriefing to Colonels and Generals back in air-conditioned Saigon; General Moore respectively declined all requests. The intellectual disconnect with Hal Moore's combat situation and genuine "non compos mentis" on the leadership meter literally welled up in my throat. How could several West Pointers who have been trained since Day 1 to be leaders of troops, order one of their peers out of a fight where his leadership was sorely needed? Where was their perspective? Where was their purpose? General Moore clearly knew his purpose was to be with his troops and, if need be, die on the field with them.
The film is also brutally unrelenting in its portrayal of combat. The fight in the Ia Drang was up close and personal. Several times units had to go hand-to-hand with their enemies in a dance of fists, bayonets and bludgeoning rifle blows. It's not a film for the faint of heart.
For those unfamiliar with General Moore and Joe Galloway's book, the film is only half the story. Mr. Wallace went out of his way while writing the screenplay and producing the story to capture the horror of war and the honor of the men fighting it, but he couldn't include, in a two and one half hour treatment, the story of LZ Albany. For what the North Vietnamese could not sufficiently do to General Moore and his 1st Battalion, they were to do to the sister 2nd Battalion. They were over-run and decimated while strung out in a line over 500 yards long. Survivors of platoons and companies could be counted on one hand.
In closing I would like to leave you with some of General Moore's words he imparted to his officers and battalion staff when he took over the unit back in '65. These simple principles kept many of his men alive:
"Only first place trophies will be displayed, accepted, or presented in this battalion. Second place in our line of work is defeat of the unit on the battlefield, and death for the individual in combat. No fat troops or officers. Decision-making will be decentralized: Push the power down. It pays off in wartime. Loyalty flows down as well. I check up on everything. I am available day or night to talk with any officers of this battalion. Finally, the sergeant major works only for me and takes orders only from me. He is my right-hand man."
A resounding "Garry Owen" to Randall Wallace for mothering this story through and for holding true to General Moore and Joe Galloway's spirit in telling a story of ordinary men who wound up fighting and dying for each other.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Semper Fi,
Robert L. McMahon
President
Soldiers For The Truth
