We were heroes
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | We were heroes |
| Original title | We were soldiers |
| Country of production | USA , Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2002 |
| length | 137 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18/16 (abridged version) |
| Rod | |
| Director | Randall Wallace |
| script | Randall Wallace |
| production | Bruce Davey |
| music | Nick Glennie-Smith |
| camera | Dean Semler |
| cut | William Hoy |
| occupation | |
| |
We Were Heroes (Original Title: We Were Soldiers ) is a war film based on true events that is about the battle of the Ia Drang Valley , the first great battle of the Vietnam War . The film was controversial after its release: While director Randall Wallace and the entire production team claim to have worked exactly according to contemporary witness reports, the film is repeatedly accused of one-sided and patriotic hero worship.
action
In 1954, the last year of the First Indochina War , a French unit was attacked by the Viet Cong fighting for independence . The Vietnamese commander Nguyen Huu An ordered his soldiers "to kill everyone so they will stop coming".
Eleven years later, Harold G. Moore , father of five and Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army, is sent to South Vietnam with 400 soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment , the same unit as General Custer . The aim of the mission is to track down and destroy enemy forces. For the first time, the soldiers are to be flown to the combat area by air using helicopters as a means of transport. For this purpose Moore trains the soldiers beforehand together with the experienced Sergeant Major Basil Plumley. The training is rigorous and Moore appeals to their camaraderie regardless of religion or social background the other might belong to. Many are still very young, too young. Moore complains to his supervisor that a large part of his experienced troops have been withdrawn and that he has to go into battle with too many inexperienced people. The opponent, on the other hand, has had fighting experience for 20 years and is defending his own soil.
After there had been no major fighting so far, they were ambushed on November 14, 1965 . Moore foresaw this after the enemy scout retreated into the mountains at the start of the battle. Since the helicopters need 30 minutes of flight time for the one-way route, the first 60 soldiers are left on their own for a period of 60 minutes (return flight and approach of the second troop contingent). Moore has to dare, because he too has an assignment order. As he had promised his men, he is the first to set foot on enemy territory. Moore chooses a flat meadow as the landing zone, called the "X-Ray" landing zone, which is surrounded by small trees. In their defense, the GIs fire immediately, although nothing is stirring anywhere. The soldiers manage to capture a North Vietnamese soldier. From him they learn that the place they were sent to is actually the base camp for a Vietnamese army division of 4,000 men.
The enemy soon opened fire and what was fatal for the French eleven years ago and ended in a massacre is now threatening to happen to the Americans too. Moore is threatened by overwhelming odds and there are numerous casualties on the first day of the battle. The enemy was hiding in an underground tunnel system in a mountain and was therefore able to strike so heavily. According to Moore's plan, his companies "Alpha" and "Bravo" should advance to the river Ia Drang, "Charlie" south towards the mountain. The "Delta" company, a heavy infantry company with mortars and machine guns, was to remain at the landing zone as a reserve. The enemy thwarts this plan and cuts off Moore and his people from supplies. Only when it is dark does a helicopter with war correspondent Joseph L. Galloway manage to get to the battlefield. From the helicopter he had been able to spot advancing Viet Cong in the jungle. Prepared by this news, the North Vietnamese succeeded in fighting back that night and repelling their attack. But the next morning new Viet Cong move in and the shelling continues. The battalion is now under fire from three sides and Moore lets the Code Broken Arrow radio. This alerts all available American aircraft to support the threatened formation from the air. The incoming bombers and fighters inflict heavy losses on the Viet Cong. Due to an error in the tactical air controller, the battalion command post is bombed with napalm, killing American soldiers. Emotionally carried away by the extent of the suffering among the soldiers, reporter Galloway no longer only photographs motifs of heroic GIs, but also - and increasingly - their torments, injuries and the horror of the war with its innumerable dead. During a break in combat, the wounded are cared for and flown out by requested helicopters. Moore is also ordered to fly out to attend a meeting, as they do not want a high-ranking staff officer to be killed in this battle, but he resists and declares that he should stand by the side of his fighting men. Moore then tries to look for two missing soldiers on the battlefield strewn with dead, but can only rescue them dead. He has to realize that one of his officers died for his promise. Before their mission, Moore had promised all soldiers that they would not leave anyone behind, whether dead or alive. 2nd Lieutenant Jack Geoghegan was shot while trying to rescue a dead comrade from the battlefield.
Headquarters plans to send reinforcements on the third day of the battle, but Moore fears that the Viet Cong will just wait and fire on the fresh units. But since these arrive at a different landing zone, the losses are limited. On the contrary, because the support from the air saves Moore and many of his people's lives. You can break through enemy lines for the first time and have no Vietnamese soldiers between you and the enemy command post. Commander Nguyen Huu An then withdraws and the battle in the Ia Drang Valley is over. Moore has the dead collected and flown out with the survivors. The first reporters are already here and expect glorious reports from Moore. However, he turns away without a word and mourns for his fallen men. Galloway is then interviewed by his colleagues and reports on what these men would have done here and how they fell. In Saigon , Moore is congratulated on his great victory, but he is sent back to the Vietnam War with his successful 7th Cavalry Regiment ; for 235 days. Only then can he return to his family.
Joseph L. Galloway tells the world about the war in Vietnam as Lt. Colonel Harold "Hal" G. Moore has promised.
In the credits , 80 of them are listed by name , representing all soldiers who lost their lives in the battle in the Ia-Drang valley .
production
Literary template
We were heroes based on the first part of the book "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young" by Lieutenant General a. D. Harold ("Hal") G. Moore and former UPI reporter Joseph L. Galloway.
Twenty-five years after the fighting in the Ia-Drang Valley , in which Moore had participated as commander of the 1st Battalion of the 7th US Cavalry Regiment , 3rd Brigade of the 1st Airmobile Cavalry Division of the US Army and Galloway as war correspondent , both wrote jointly an eyewitness account of the first major clash between regular units of the US military and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) between November 14 and 18, 1965.
The book is divided into two parts: The first part reports on the airborne mission of Lieutenant Colonel Moore's 1st Battalion of the 7th US Cavalry Regiment in the area of the so-called "X-Ray Landing Zone". The second part of the book, not covered in the film, tells of the fate of the regiment's 2nd Battalion, which rushed to the aid of the sister battalion and was ambushed on foot the next day during a patrol march.
For this book, Moore and Galloway processed the official reports of the units involved and interviewed many former combatants, including the then commanders of the North Vietnamese Army. Since the work was written from the perspective of the US professional soldier, the book became a bestseller in the USA in 1992.
Production data
A script adaptation of the novel was made by the spring of 2000, for which the screenwriter Randall Wallace was responsible, who, after the Oscar-nominated books for the medieval battle painting Braveheart and for Pearl Harbor, turned back to the war film. Wallace also directed; its only the second director activities for The Man in the Iron Mask (The Man in the Iron Mask) .
Paramount Pictures and Icon Entertainment took over the production. Filming in Fort Benning , Georgia and Fort Hunter Liggett , California , among others , lasted from March 5 to July 13, 2001.
Camera led Oscar winner Dean Semler , who had previously been on large-scale productions such as Dances with Wolves (Dances with Wolves) or Waterworld was involved. Editing was done by William Hoy , who had previously worked with Wallace on The Man in the Iron Mask .
On a budget of $ 75 million, while many of the book's facts are presented in the film, the final version of the film is neither a historically accurate account of the battle nor is it completely faithful to the book.
analysis
The handbook Theology and Popular Film Vol. 1 shows in its contribution to contemporary war film, how in We Were Heroes the image of an ideal society for war is drawn.
Superficially, any political statement on American engagement in Vietnam is avoided in the film. There is, however, a sequence in which Moore tries to explain to his daughter what war actually means: “When people [...] try to kill other people, soldiers like your daddy have the task of [...] stopping them. "
By combining this declaration with a story that shows a confrontation that can be recognized as a “victory”, a war utopia emerges: the Vietnam War as it should have been.
For the course of the film, the representation of the "ideal war family" can be traced. Parallel to the story of the soldiers who go to war highly motivated and conscious of victory, the image of home is shown. In the film there are only families who support their soldiers without reservation. The women are housewives who are used to looking after the children and waiting for the men. Accordingly, the film shows the women repeatedly doing various housewife activities. The most important thing that needs to be discussed among the officer's wives is the question of shopping and washing options. The fact that the city's laundromat is only for whites cannot prevent a black officer's wife from standing wholeheartedly behind the US armed forces. It fits the tenor of the film that this colored officer's wife was accepted unconditionally by all other (white) officer's wives as early as 1965. The (housewives) women are loyally anxious for the return of their husbands, and even after receiving the news of their death, the women do not criticize the war. In addition, a US flag can be seen in each of these “telegram scenes” to make it clear that the victims were by no means pointless.
This ideal war family also includes an ideal image of the press in the form of reporter Galloway. Only he, who had to pick up the rifle and defend himself, is in a position to adequately portray the soldiers' “achievement”: war is an honorable cause, and criticism is inappropriate.
Last but not least, religion is also presented as a stabilizing system. Lieutenant Geoghegan, who has just become a father, expresses the hope to Moore that he will "protect orphans [...] and not make [...]." Moore's following prayer, however, does not include a request for insight into correct action, but a request for him Protect your own soldiers in combat. This "prayer" is taken to extremes by an addition that affects the enemy:
"Help us chase these bastards to hell."
With the help of these elements, We were Heroes succeeds in dealing with the Vietnam War in a reconciling way and at the same time presenting the ideal society - consisting of soldiers, reporters, women and children - for a war. Critical questions about military operations are just as neglected as the warning about war in general.
Reviews
“A patriotic-militaristic film based on a factual report that aims to polish up the image of the US Army in retrospect. In doing so, he involuntarily exposes his main actor's weaknesses in acting. "
“[...] what makes this film so mendacious and at the lowest point in contemporary war cinema has not only to do with the charged iconography. Rather, it is the combination of heroism, the war scenario and its setting: Vietnam. In the long history of the Vietnam War film, there has never been such an impeccable star officer as Superdaddy Colonel Moore. [...] because Moore is not a wimp, but the man who, after John Wayne in The Green Devils (1968) and Sylvester Stallone in Rambo II - The Order (1986), will win the lost Vietnam War for the USA, the tables are turning around. [...] As an officer and father of a family, Mel Gibson has officially realized the dream that was only allowed to be dreamed afterwards by an outsider in Rambo II. "
“[...] what prompted director and screenwriter Randall Wallace and Gibson to turn it into a conventional, but also tendingly one-sided war film, remains inexplicable. [...] For German viewers, however, there is very little reason to go into battle with Gibson and his 'heroes'. "
music
Anthem The Mansions of the Lord , which can be heard at the beginning of the credits, is written by director and screenwriter Randall Wallace (text) and composer Nick Glennie-Smith (music). On June 11, 2004, the piece was sung by the United States Armed Forces Chorus at the end of the funeral service for Ronald Reagan in Washington National Cathedral .
In the scene of the regiment's farewell party, the song Hold On, I'm Comin 'is played on stage, although it wasn't released until the year after the events of the film.
synchronization
literature
- Thomas Bohrmann, Mathias Grandl: "Every war is different, every war is the same": War in the film. In: Thomas Bohrmann, Werner Veith, Stephan Zöller (Eds.): Handbuch Theologie und Popular Film. Volume 1. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-506-72963-7 , pp. 79-94.
Web links
- We were heroes in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- We Were Soldiers atRotten Tomatoes(English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for We were heroes . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2008 (PDF; long version).
- ↑ cf. on the history of its origins: McAdams, Frank, The American War Film. History And Hollywood, Los Angeles 2005, p. 476.
- ↑ cf. the information in the Internet Movie Database for this data .
- ↑ See the following Bohrmann, Thomas, Grandl, Mathias: Every war is different. Every war is the same: war in the film. In: Thomas Bohrmann et al.: Handbuch Theologie und Popular Film Vol. 1. Schöningh, Paderborn 2007, pp. 90ff.
- ↑ This sequence turns the event described by Moore into the opposite: The real Moore just couldn't make his daughter understand what war means. Cf. Moore, Harold / Galloway, Joseph: We Were Soldiers Once… And Young. Ia Drang - the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam, New York 1992, 27.
- ↑ a b Bohrmann, Thomas, Grandl, Mathias: Every war is different. Every war is the same: war in the film. In: Thomas Bohrmann et al.: Handbuch Theologie und Popular Film Vol. 1. Schöningh, Paderborn 2007, p. 91.
- ↑ Bohrmann, Thomas, Grandl, Mathias: Every war is different. Every war is the same: war in the film. In: Thomas Bohrmann et al.: Handbuch Theologie und Popular Film Vol. 1. Schöningh, Paderborn 2007, p. 92.
- ↑ We were heroes. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 25, 2017 .
- ↑ Music program of the funeral service ( Memento from March 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf)