We Were Soldiers
| We Were Soldiers | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Randall Wallace |
| Produced by |
Bruce Davey Stephen McEveety Randall Wallace |
| Screenplay by | Randall Wallace |
| Based on |
We Were Soldiers Once… And Young by Hal Moore and Joseph L. Galloway |
| Starring |
Mel Gibson Madeleine Stowe Sam Elliott Greg Kinnear Chris Klein Keri Russell Barry Pepper |
| Music by | Nick Glennie-Smith |
| Cinematography | Dean Semler |
| Edited by | William Hoy |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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138 minutes |
| Country | United States Germany |
| Language | English Vietnamese French |
| Budget | $75 million |
| Box office | $114,660,784 |
We Were Soldiers is a 2002 war film that dramatizes the Battle of Ia Drang on November 14, 1965. The film was directed by Randall Wallace and stars Mel Gibson. It is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once… And Young (1992) by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, both of whom were at the battle.
A French unit on patrol in Vietnam in 1954, during the final year of the First Indochina War, is ambushed by Viet Minh forces, probably the Battle of Mang Yang Pass. Viet Minh commander Nguyen Huu An orders his soldiers to "kill all they send, and they will stop coming".
Eleven years later, the United States is fighting the Vietnam War. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) is chosen to train and lead a battalion. After arriving in Vietnam, he learns that an American base has been attacked, and is ordered to take his 400 men after the enemy and eliminate the North Vietnamese attackers, despite the fact that intelligence has no idea of the number of enemy troops. As the haunting lament "Sgt. MacKenzie" plays, Moore leads a newly created air cavalry unit into the Ia Drang Valley. After landing in the "Valley of Death", the soldiers learn that the location they were sent to is actually the base camp for a veteran North Vietnamese army division of 4,000 men.
Upon arrival in the area with a platoon of soldiers, 2nd Lt. Henry Herrick spots an enemy scout, runs after him, and orders reluctant soldiers to follow. The North Vietnamese scout lures them into an ambush, resulting in several men being killed, including Lt. Herrick and his subordinates. The surviving platoon members are surrounded with no chance of retreat. Sgt. Savage assumes command, calls in artillery, and uses the cover of night to keep the Vietnamese from overrunning their small defensive position. Meanwhile, with helicopters constantly dropping off units, Lt. Col. Moore manages to secure weak points before the North Vietnamese can take advantage of them.
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Wikipedia