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We Were Soldiers
Steyn On-line ^ | November 11, 2017 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 11/11/2017 4:46:08 PM PST by Twotone

On "Fox & Friends" this morning, reacting to the live footage of President Trump in Hanoi, I talked about the Vietnam war's domestic impact on the American psyche. It took many decades for that to change, and this Veterans Day movie pick is one of the cultural artifacts of that evolution in perception - a film about soldiering that wears its allegiance in its very title. It was released about six months after 9/11, in the spring of 2002, and in that sense is a movie about an old war seen through the lens of a new one.

The best thing about We Were Soldiers is how bad it is. I don't mean "bad" in the sense that it's written and directed by Randall Wallace, screenwriter of Braveheart (which won Oscars for pretty much everything except its screenplay, which was not overlooked without reason) and Pearl Harbor (whose plonking dialogue has been dwelt on previously in this space). Mr Wallace is as reliably uninspired as you can get. And yet it serves him well here. Pearl Harbor was terrible, but it was professionally terrible, its lame dialogue and cookie-cutter characters and butt-numbingly obvious emotional manipulation skillfully woven together into state-of-the-art Hollywood product. By contrast, in its best moments, We Were Soldiers feels very unHollywoody, as if it's a film not just about soldiers, but made by soldiers - or at any rate by someone who cares more about capturing the spirit of soldiery than about making a cool movie. It's the very opposite of Steven Spielberg's fluid ballet of carnage in Saving Private Ryan, and yet, in its stiffness and squareness, it manages to be moving and dignified in the way that real veterans of hellish battles often are.

(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...


TOPICS: History; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: halmoore; marksteyn; melgibson
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To: Phillyred

One of those lost would have been a relative, had he not been KIA


21 posted on 11/11/2017 6:31:41 PM PST by combat_boots (God bless Israel and all who protect and defend her! Merry Christmas! In God We Trust!)
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To: Phillyred

Yes they do. They can lose a warn after sacraficing 50K+ lives for no reason but political expedience. Remember that!


22 posted on 11/11/2017 6:34:01 PM PST by wgmalabama
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To: Twotone

Great movie. Hits you right in the feels.

Joseph Galloway: I’m a non-combatant.
Sergeant Major Basil Plumley: Ain’t no such thing today.


23 posted on 11/11/2017 6:36:03 PM PST by NImerc
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To: SoCal Pubbie

I was just thinking about him too when I saw this thread. He was n that battle


24 posted on 11/11/2017 6:36:32 PM PST by Citizen Soldier ("And I was born to pull turnips!" Demelza Poldark)
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To: SoCal Pubbie

Wasn’t he Col Moore’s radio operator or something like that? I remember his excitement over the movie, long before it came out. I was thinking of him as soon as I saw the title. Could not remember his name. Wow. No posts for a long time.


25 posted on 11/11/2017 6:38:44 PM PST by I_be_tc
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To: Twotone; bagster
Death in the Ia Drang Valley, November 13-18, 1965

click on the link, scroll down a bit and you will find Jack Smith's memoir of the battle that is the basis of We Were Soldiers Once and Young

26 posted on 11/11/2017 6:41:19 PM PST by Pelham
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To: Twotone
From the front lines of Ia Drang Valley: ‘Killing, dying and suffering indelibly marked us all’

an account of the battle of Ia Drang Valley by Joseph Galloway, the author of We Were Soldiers

27 posted on 11/11/2017 6:47:35 PM PST by Pelham
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To: Phillyred
Politicians just suck

This whole concept of civilian control of the military is highly overrated.

We are all friendly these days with most of the countries hundreds of thousands of US troops died and millions wounded fighting over the last 100 years.

Trump has Kelly all tuned up and ready to go when the MOVE happens.

28 posted on 11/11/2017 6:52:58 PM PST by Rome2000 (SMASH THE CPUSA-SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS-CLOSE ALL MOSQUES)
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To: Twotone
Ed Freeman, Medal of Honor, Vietnam War, Ia Drang Valley

Bruce Crandall, Medal of Honor, Vietnam War, Ia Drang Valley

29 posted on 11/11/2017 6:55:32 PM PST by Pelham
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To: I_be_tc; Citizen Soldier; SoCal Pubbie; bagster

‘Aloha Ronnie’ Guyer was radio operator at Ia Drang Valley for both Hal Moore and Basil Plumley

http://www.lzxray.com/articles/ronnie-guyer-ia-drang-photo-collection


30 posted on 11/11/2017 7:05:05 PM PST by Pelham
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To: Pelham

Thanks. Hubby was Vietnam but has never talked about it. He still dreams about it. He speaks Vietnamese in his sleep sometimes. Don’t know if you’ve read it but here’s a link for another good red. Hubby was in this battle.

https://history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/7-ff/Ch6.htm


31 posted on 11/11/2017 7:12:32 PM PST by sheana
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To: Twotone

The late retired Lieutenant General Hal Moore was one helluva an officer and he embodied the spirit of leading from the front.

32 posted on 11/11/2017 7:18:28 PM PST by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel.)
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To: SES1066
there was another soldier there at the Battle of Ia Drang that we should keep green in our memory, Col. Cyril Richard Rescorla

And also Jack Goeghegan. I knew him when he was a cadet commander at military college, and he was a very fine individual. He died there trying to save another man.

33 posted on 11/11/2017 7:24:44 PM PST by Albion Wilde (I was not elected to continue a failed system. I was elected to change it. --Donald J. Trump)
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To: Pelham

Oops nope. Don’t think that’s the one he was in. He’s in a book but I don’t think it’s online.


34 posted on 11/11/2017 7:31:05 PM PST by sheana
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To: FreedomOfExpression

Well, that’s not too long ago! I hope he is well wherever he is.


35 posted on 11/11/2017 7:56:48 PM PST by SoCal Pubbie
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To: Twotone

For those interested in a first hand account of the Vietnam realities of American soldiers, i highly recommend this book.

JoMa


36 posted on 11/11/2017 8:42:36 PM PST by joma89
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To: combat_boots

Good advice even today.
37 posted on 11/11/2017 8:52:30 PM PST by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.")
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To: blueunicorn6

when is was in the army i bought “Street without Joy”. if i recall the battle was on Route 15 in and around where we had a base camp at ccamp Bear Cat near a South Vietnamese special forces post. after i rotated back to the U.S. i heard it was over run.


38 posted on 11/11/2017 8:56:36 PM PST by 1st Division guy
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To: Kartographer

Gibson was great but I loved Sam Elliot in this flick. Great movie.


39 posted on 11/11/2017 9:12:18 PM PST by Nicojones
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To: Nicojones

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/plumley.html

Custer was a pussy, you ain’t. The quotes attributable to plumley are hilarious. The pussies of this generation couldn’t lick the boots of this man.


40 posted on 11/11/2017 9:31:35 PM PST by Nicojones
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