The film was excellent. This is American valor powering pioneering new technique to hard-won victory over an entrenched numerically superior force familiar with the terrain and adept at guerilla technique. The resounding impression is massively inspiring.
I found a technical note or two, that the beginning fight occurred later than depicted; that the final raid did not actually occur. The source said that in other respects the authenticity was thorough.
One viewer noted Joe Galloway had no such distaste for the M-16 as depicted; rather, he was known to carry his own personal M-16. In a recent Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute interview with Galloway, he is pictured in a contemporary photo holding a Swedish K submachinegun at Danang in August 1965. (February 2002, pp. 50-52.)
As I noted elsewhere, this battle occurred the same month (November, 1965) that the Joint Chiefs were allowed fifteen minutes in a small room of the White House to urge LBJ to bomb Hanoi and mine Haiphong. ("The Day It Became The Longest War", Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, May 1996) LBJ cursed and humiliated them, pursuing the target sanitation depicted in Rolling Thunder.
WE WERE SOLDIERS is a valiant battle narrated by the commanding officer and a 42-year journalist who risked his life there, filmed with an actor who wore it on his sleeve in "Braveheart" and "The Patriot".
This is the first film of the caliber our Vietnam veterans deserve.