Many have recommended this Vietnam war movie to me over the years and I finally had an opportunity to see it.
This story is based on the critically acclaimed book "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young," by Lieutenant General Hal Moore (Mel Gibson's character in the film) and reporter Joseph Galloway, both of whom were intimately involved in the first major battle between the U.S. military and the North Vietnamese army at the Battle of la Drang on November 14, 1965.
Heavily outnumbered in this ambush, the U.S. lost 300 soldiers in defending their position while the North Vietnamese lost more than 1,500 of their own.
This battle served as the U.S.'s first true test of their new air mobility tactics using helicopters to deliver battalion level forces supported by remote artillery and the air force.
This particular story centers on Moore's 7th Cavalry landing at the X-Ray landing zone (about the size of a football field), in which they were surrounded - 360 degrees - by 5 divisions of North Vietnamese hidden underground and in the bush.
The film doesn't lay blame, is not political, and indicates that a true soldier fights to defend his family, no matter how that word is defined.
It's not often that a war film can produce the wide range of emotions (in a good way) as honestly as this one did...
