Grant+Gould

Grant Gould Randall Wallace’s //We Were Soldiers// is a movie based off the book depicting the events during the battle of Ia Drang in 1965 during the Vietnam conflict. //We Were Soldiers//was co-produced by General (Ret.) Hal Moore and Joe Galloway, who also wrote the book. Moore fought in the battle and Galloway was a battlefield reporter traded his camera for a rifle and fought alongside the soldiers. While //We Were Soldiers// was guided by Moore and Galloway’s experience, some historical inaccuracies remain. The purpose of this investigation is to determine to what extent the movie is historically accurate and also to determine what parts are inaccurate. This will be completed by comparing first-hand accounts from newspapers, the United States Government, Hal Moore, and Joe Galloway to the events depicted in //We Were Soldiers//.
 * A. Plan of Investigation **
 * To what extent is the movie //We Were Soldiers// historically accurate? **

__ Evidence supporting //We Were Soldiers// is historically accurate __ 1. “Detailed research, extensive interviews with the troopers, and quotations in the book. If one looks at the chapter notes alone, they convey the amount of research we did. On the weekend it was published, it was reviewed on the front page of the //New York Times// book review section. We quickly received calls from producers who wanted to make it into a movie.” (Moore)[i] 2. “The movie version was very accurate. For example, it captured the fact that soldiers in battle fight, kill and die for one another. It also properly recorded the respect that I had for the capabilities of the enemy we fought against.”(Moore)[ii]
 * B. Summary of Evidence **
 * Testimonies **

3. “The first time we saw the movie, we were quite moved. The motion picture was extremely well done. It really captured the essence of battle, especially the scenes dealing with everything that was happening at the command post. That really happened, and it was accurately depicted.” (Moore)[iii]

4. “Mel did a great job. My daughters tell me that when he was talking in the movie, they could shut their eyes and hear me. Sam Elliott also did a beautiful job playing Sergeant Major Basil Plumley – he should have received an Oscar.” (Moore)[iv]

5. “Our goal was simple: to tell the story of my great and courageous troopers—those that came home alive and those who came home dead. Every second of those three days in Landing Zone X-RAY—14–16 November, 1965—is engraved upon my heart. Time does not allow war to fade away. Reconstructing the training period, the battle and the aftermath of war was a long process, but it was not discovering new information. It was all about getting it right!” (Moore)[v]

6. "I don't think there's been a movie made to this point that Vietnam veterans can sit down and watch and identify with…The soldiers always look for the truth. They don't care about some weenie story. They don't care that Apocalypse is based on a Conrad novel. They want it to look like how they remembered." (Galloway)[vi]

7. Galloway stated that the actors were sent to Army boot camp in Fort Benning, Georgia that was run by Army Rangers, a Special Forces unit. The actors were additionally required to wake up at 5 a.m. for runs and were trained with weapons used during Vietnam. No blue screens were used for helicopter scenes, the actor, Greg Kinnear, had to learn how to fly a helicopter for his role as major. The make up artist for the movie was a captain in the Marine Corp and, “He knew what a man looked like who had been napalmed. He knew what a gunshot wound really looked like.” (Crandall)

__ Evidence supporting //We Were Soldiers// is historically inaccurate __ 1. “The film failed to capture the factual account of the telegrams arriving home dealing with the deaths of our troopers. At the time, the Army did not have a system set up like it has now, and the telegrams were being delivered by taxicab drivers. My wife, Julie, found out and raised hell with the Fort Benning post commander. From then on, Julie followed the taxicab to the home and was on the scene when the widow got the message. Soon, the Army devised a system to have the telegrams delivered by a chaplain and another officer in uniform – that was all because of Julie.” (Moore)[vii]

2. "Did they dramatize some of it? Sure they did…this is Hollywood. This is entertainment. This is truth and entertainment. But I would say to you that there's less Hollywood in this movie than any movie I've ever seen." (Galloway)[viii]

A scene between Gen. Moore and Sgt. Plumley depicts Moore relaying to Plumley that the mission statement was to “find and destroy the enemy”.
 * Historical Facts on the battle of Ia Drang in comparison to the movie[ix] **
 * The mission statement was to find and to destroy the enemy.

The landing zone is referred to as X-ray numerous times throughout the film.
 * The primary landing zone was codenamed X-ray.

A scene in the movie shows the morning attack, as well as the US counterattack
 * North Vietnamese soldiers (NVA) launched an attack on the morning of the second day, which decimated two US platoons.

In the movie, there is a mention of the death count at 42 at the end of the battle.
 * The United States evacuated the Ia Drang Valley, taking with them 42 dead Americans and leaving an estimated 1,800 NVA soldiers dead.


 * As boldly and intentionally dramatic portrayed in the movie, General Hal Moore indeed was the first to step on the battlefield, and the last to step off.

Hal Moore has taken recent trips back to the Ia Drang valley in Vietnam, evening meeting with General An, the NVA general throughout the battle. During the movie the viewer is taken inside the thinking of General An. Moore said the film was accurate, especially in the way the movie captures the confusion of battle and the thinking of the North Vietnamese Commander, General An.
 * General Moore (US)/ General An (NVA)[x] **

The article is found on military.com, a website dedicated on covering all topics relating to the movie //We Were Soldiers.// The majority of the article is quotes from General (ret.) Hal Moore and Joe Galloway, a reporter who ended up actually fighting in the battle while his position was being overrun. Also, because of that the article has real value in determining the actual events of the battle of Ia Drang. Hal Moore and Galloway set out to create a movie (We Were Soldiers) that depicted the true account of the men who fought in the battle of Ia Drang. The only limitation is that the information provided could be biased, since it is through the eyes of someone fighting, certain information could be confusing or biased.
 * C. Evaluation of Sources **
 * ** Freshi, Laura. "Making It Real: 'We Were Soldiers' Strives To Tell It Like It **
 * Was." //Military.com//. Military Advantage, 2002. Web. 1 Mar. 2012. **
 * < [] >. ** ||

The movie was overseen by General Hal Moore and Joe Galloway, a battlefield reporter, both of whom fought in the battle of Ia Drang. It offers a first hand account of the battle of Ia Drang with little Hollywood twists. It reveals the true depiction of American soldiers in the Vietnam War and reveals the soldiers heroic actions to the public. It could be potentially be biased because it is through the eyes of only two Americans and information could be slightly off due to the pressure and intenseness of battle.
 * **// We Were Soldiers //**** . Dir. Randall Wallace. Paramount Pictures, 2002. Film. ** ||

If Hal Moore and Joe Galloway were actively involved in the creation of the movie every step of the way and both testified to its accuracy then the movie //We Were Soldiers// can be portrayed as an accurate depiction of the events of Ia Drang and the stories of the leaders. In many ways //We Were Soldiers// is an accurate historical account of the events of Ia Drang. It is a credible recreation of the personality and thinking of important historical figures such as Hal Moore, Joe Galloway, and General An. However, as Hollywood often does, certain scenes are dramatized to increase the dramatic effect for viewers. In short, Hollywood manipulated several scenes to sell more tickets and earn a bigger profit. Both Moore and Galloway acknowledged these small inaccuracies and despite them used words like “accurate” and “real” to describe the movie. If the guiding goal of Moore and Galloway was to show the true story of the soldiers at Ia Drang then the film must accurately portray the selflessness, sacrifice, and heroism of the troops. There is an old military saying that goes, “Always listen to the guy on the ground”. In determining the accuracy of this movie that has been the guiding principle of this investigation- listening to the guys who were on the ground (Moore and Galloway).
 * D. Analysis **

The few minor historical inaccuracies throughout the film are not enough to discredit the movie. The facts reveal that //We Were Soldiers// is an accurate portrayal of history, depicting real events that occurred on and off the battlefield during the Vietnam conflict.
 * E. Conclusion **


 * F. List Of Source ** s


 * // We Were Soldiers // . Dir. Randall Wallace. Paramount Pictures, 2002. Film. ||

2007. Web. 11 Mar. 2012. < [] 10-questions-for-general-hal-moore.htm>. || Web. 2 Mar. 2012. < [] general-hal-moore/>. || < [] 2570-harold-moore-i-will-leave-no-one-behind>. || Was." //Military.com//. Military Advantage, 2002. Web. 1 Mar. 2012. < [] >. ||
 * Sobel, Brian. "10 Questions for General Hal Moore." //Arm Chair General//. N.p.,
 * Pressfield, Steven. "General Hal Moore." //Steven Pressfield Online//. N.p., 2003.
 * // National Geographic: Ia Drang // . National Geographic, 2010. Film. ||
 * Moore, Hal. //Sweet Speeches//. N.p., 2004. Web. 2 Mar. 2012.
 * Freshi, Laura. "Making It Real: 'We Were Soldiers' Strives To Tell It Like It

[i] Pressfield, Steven. "General Hal Moore."//Steven Pressfield Online//. N.p., 2003. Web. 2 Mar. 2012. [ii] Ibid [iii] Ibid [iv] Ibid [v] Ibid [vi] Freshi, Laura. "Making It Real: 'We Were Soldiers' Strives To Tell It Like It Was."//Military.com//. Military Advantage, 2002. Web. 1 Mar. 2012. [vii] Pressfield, Steven. "General Hal Moore."//Steven Pressfield Online//. N.p., 2003. Web. 2 Mar. 2012. [viii] Freshi, Laura. "Making It Real: 'We Were Soldiers' Strives To Tell It Like It Was."//Military.com//. Military Advantage, 2002. Web. 1 Mar. 2012. [ix]// National Geographic: Ia Drang //. National Geographic, 2010. Film. [x] Sobel, Brian. "10 Questions for General Hal Moore." //Arm Chair General//. N.p., 2007. Web. 11 Mar. 2012.

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