Hadn't thought of that. Could be why the theater I went to was about 25% empty on Friday night.
Liberalism is alive and well in the Golden State. Big surprise.
I just saw it on Friday. Colonel Moore (Mel Gibson) is a leader, a hero, and a role model for REAL men.
Not just a reporter, Brendan. That was Joe Galloway, the co-author of the book and, as I understand, a senior advisor as the movie was being filmed.
This moment in the movie suggested to the audience that the behavior of the press and Col. Moore's (Gibson) reaction when they got in his face was an ominous foreboding of the extent to which the press would serve to weaken our resolve and contribute to losing the war. Indeed the part where Moore shows his disdain when the politicians crossed the line by taking a third of his men and later requesting he return to headquarters in the middle of the battle was revealing. Anyone seeing this movie should come away with a deeper understanding as to why we must expose, marginalize and mock those who seek to weaken our resolve or interfere with our troops in the war on terror.
What's sad is that the number two film of the weekend is about some guy that's trying not to have sex for forty days. Hollywood's got a long ways to go.
Excerpt:
Mel Gibson's new film "We Were Soldiers" tells a story of the first major American military engagement in Vietnam, the Ia Drang Valley battle of November 1965. The film focuses on some 400 American soldiers, inserted miles into hostile territory, who fought thousands of North Vietnamese army troops. They were surrounded for three days but fought on with bravery and honor--principled men vs. a determined, well-equipped foe. The Americans end up killing nearly 2,000 of the enemy and winning the battle.
What elevates the film is that it's a true story about Vietnam. Hollywood simply hasn't been able to tell a true story that portrays Americans as the good guys in that conflict in a long time. Take a look at "Full Metal Jacket," which follows a few Marines through basic training and into the war. One Marine becomes a reporter and sports a peace sign and the words "born to kill" on his helmet. It ends with the Marines singing the "Mickey Mouse Club" tune after a senseless battle. Or "Born on the Fourth of July," in which Tom Cruise plays an American soldier who becomes a paraplegic and joins the peace movement.
"Saving Private Ryan" paved the way for such gory, realistic war movies. But even that World War II portrayal of the search for one man in the confusion of war is fiction. "Black Hawk Down" is a true story. But it differs from "We Were Soldiers" in that nearly everyone admits the shootout in Somalia was the bad consequence of aimless foreign policy--many just don't want to admit it was Bill Clinton who didn't have a clear sense of what he was doing and thus his policy hung those men out to dry.
Mr. Gibson's film, which he might have named "We Were Soldiers, Not Baby Killers," is an argument for honoring the Americans who fought in Vietnam--and what they fought for. John Wayne's 1967 film "The Green Beret" made the same argument, and leftists have despised it since the day it was released. In that film Wayne dared to show the cruelty meted out by the communists and be unabashedly patriotic.
"We Were Soldiers" smashes most of the stock images of Vietnam that Hollywood has created over the years. The GIs never criticize the war or ask why they're fighting. Some are even happy to be there--the first American killed in battle dies saying, "I'm glad I can die for my country." To many in Hollywood, Vietnam was such an immoral war for this country to wage that it could only leave those who fought it confused, violent or insane--hence Rambo. Not so in Mr. Gibson's movie. None of the soldiers go crazy, join the peace movement or turn out to be weirdoes. They're God-fearing, devoted husbands who fight with courage and honor. The only thing that's abnormal about their return home is that not all of them are welcomed at the airport--a criticism not of the war, but of those who protested it.
It was very hard to watch, but it should have been. There was no smug "we were the smart ones who didn't go," or "we were the ones who went crazy," etc. The absolutely evil foreign policy under Lyndon Johnson was alluded to subtly but devastatingly.
Film critics have been unusually idiotic - they obviously spent most of their time in the popcorn line or in the bathroom. One critic referred to the massacre of the French as occurring "a few months before" November 1965; another claimed that the film (to paraphrase) "completely ignored the racism of the 1960s." Yet another sneered that it was "like a John Ford film." No doubt others found it reminded them of Frank Capra - a fate worse than death, I'm sure.
I don't think she said "atheist", I think she said "Methodist". Can anyone confirm?
Actually, their singing was to alert the sentries on the Marine's perimeter that they were Marines and not enemy troops approaching. This was actually used several times during that war for that particular reason.
Ummmmmm......She doesn't say she wants to be an atheist. She says she wants to be a Methodist.
Oliver Stone (who directed the film) fought in Vietnam, and the "soldier" was a Green Beret named Ronald Kovic who was paralyzed after having his spine shot out during a firefight in Vietnam. The treatment that he and other soldiers recieved from the VA and the utter senselessness of the conflict turned Kovic to the anti-war movement.
It ticks me off to see the author deriding both men just because he doesn't like the message of the film.
I am a Vietnam vet, with the 4th Infantry Division in An Khe, of the Central Highlands region. I was not there a full tour as I was hit and medivaced out. I spend five months in various Army hospitals in Japan and Fort Benning.
For too long I have listen to liberal slime whine about Vietnam. I was spit on in the Atlanta airport and called a baby-killer by some hippie long hair that had not had a bath in two months. He may yet still be checking his jaw to see if it is brokern. A security cop saw it, came running over, told me to just move on and he'd handle it. He did not want me pulled into some hissie fit by the scum.
Throughout all my military service, I went where I was told to go and did what I was told to do. I was a soldier, proud of it and never second guessed my decision to join the Army back in 1970.
Today, some of my brothers in the infantry have fallen in battle far far from home. At the same time, liberals and socialists in the US Congress question the funding to these brave souls and the Kennedy's, Daschle's, Gephardt's and other socialist want nothing more than to have this country gravel at the feet of their loving communist. I will not give in. I will fight again if need be. I will fights these scum till my last breath. I sworn an oath to the Constitution way back in 1970. I think it still stands.
Pray for our country and republic ladies and gentlemen. The enemy are at the gates, they are inside the gates. This, we must defend.
RetiredArmy
I thought she said ".....Methodist, like mommy"
Hmmm, the line I heard was "I want to be a Methodist, like Mommy".