....get the DVD....:)
They left out the best scenes in the movie....seriously... they did....I strongly urge you to see the movie....and...get the DVD version so you can see the special features. I will be moving on from We were Soldiers... but I feel I still need to talk about a couple important scenes that went to the cutting room floor....they can only be viewed by going to the special features... my take is that both scenes were a tad controversial... :) So they never made it into the released film.
What I see as the problem was....(and can I help it if I'm right)... :) Politics and Religion.... those two subjects that the world tells us we should never ever discuss. It is amazing really that in a movie which makes many awesome statements about the political absurdities to justify Vietnam and cover up the horror going on...two big shots walking down a corridor showing the Washington attitude....the only concerns about the conflict were political ones and looking good to the public...when they make the unit part of the 7th Cavalry (first Custer inference) and order them into the conflict they send home half his guys and give him a bunch of raw recruits....doesn't matter...you'll just be in and out anyway.....sure! Then when everything goes sour and 395 men arrive in the middle of an ambush... surrounded by 2000 Vietnamese regulars....the inane responses in the political arena are worth the watch...the most significant of which is them wanting the Colonel to fly back out to brief them on the fighting...the real reason being they didn't want the bad publicity of losing a Colonel when the massacre came...the men didn't matter...leave them leaderless at the most crucial time in the 3 day conflict...to save what face they had left...after a couple attempts...they order him out....one of the best lines in the movie...Hal Moore grabs the phone and angrily says to the powers that be...."I am in the middle of a fight...I will not leave my men!" Then hangs up.
Politics always has it upside down and backwards....Moore had it right...it was about his men... and he did not leave them to be massacred...
In spite of all that...they cut out the sharpest political statement....couldn't really risk the feedback because this scene had some very real folks in it....actually happened....and pulls no punches....Moore is brought in and being lauded by General Westmoreland who was in charge of the conflict and the Secretary of Defense McNamara...they both come off pretty poorly as we watch them butter Moore up with compliments and he only responds with a comment about having the most wonderful men a leader could ever have....they bubble and burst about the "kill count"...any of you remember how they beat that one to death in the press? Why we only lost 79 men and they lost 1800 and something...why that's 22 point something to one...what a great victory! Moore responds..."it was a slaughter, sir"..... and then goes on to praise the bravery of the Vietnamese soldiers (again it is about people, not politics) he vividly describes them facing the muzzles of the rifles and machine guns, charging thru Napalm and the slaughter from the incredible pin point air support .... virtual killing machines... and they kept coming... (the inference is... and they will keep on coming.)
It is worth watching the responses as they make one last stupid comment about showing the "little bastards a thing or two and driving them back home"....to which Moore responds...."Sir...the little bastards are home!" Lots of eggs on the politico's faces...fun to watch....but... they just couldn't leave it in....too bad.
So often all our Church stuff is just as political and inane as we play our little games to promote the organization, the system and pretend it's all about the people. What's in our hearts is what always comes out though, no matter how we sugar coat everything...it comes out.
I'll touch on the second thing we never are supposed to talk about.....Religion. The best scene in the entire movie was left on the cutting room floor... because....in a movie that was just as full of religious and spiritual issues as it was political issues....this one was a bridge too far.... this one was about Jesus.
:)
What I see as the problem was....(and can I help it if I'm right)... :) Politics and Religion.... those two subjects that the world tells us we should never ever discuss. It is amazing really that in a movie which makes many awesome statements about the political absurdities to justify Vietnam and cover up the horror going on...two big shots walking down a corridor showing the Washington attitude....the only concerns about the conflict were political ones and looking good to the public...when they make the unit part of the 7th Cavalry (first Custer inference) and order them into the conflict they send home half his guys and give him a bunch of raw recruits....doesn't matter...you'll just be in and out anyway.....sure! Then when everything goes sour and 395 men arrive in the middle of an ambush... surrounded by 2000 Vietnamese regulars....the inane responses in the political arena are worth the watch...the most significant of which is them wanting the Colonel to fly back out to brief them on the fighting...the real reason being they didn't want the bad publicity of losing a Colonel when the massacre came...the men didn't matter...leave them leaderless at the most crucial time in the 3 day conflict...to save what face they had left...after a couple attempts...they order him out....one of the best lines in the movie...Hal Moore grabs the phone and angrily says to the powers that be...."I am in the middle of a fight...I will not leave my men!" Then hangs up.
Politics always has it upside down and backwards....Moore had it right...it was about his men... and he did not leave them to be massacred...
In spite of all that...they cut out the sharpest political statement....couldn't really risk the feedback because this scene had some very real folks in it....actually happened....and pulls no punches....Moore is brought in and being lauded by General Westmoreland who was in charge of the conflict and the Secretary of Defense McNamara...they both come off pretty poorly as we watch them butter Moore up with compliments and he only responds with a comment about having the most wonderful men a leader could ever have....they bubble and burst about the "kill count"...any of you remember how they beat that one to death in the press? Why we only lost 79 men and they lost 1800 and something...why that's 22 point something to one...what a great victory! Moore responds..."it was a slaughter, sir"..... and then goes on to praise the bravery of the Vietnamese soldiers (again it is about people, not politics) he vividly describes them facing the muzzles of the rifles and machine guns, charging thru Napalm and the slaughter from the incredible pin point air support .... virtual killing machines... and they kept coming... (the inference is... and they will keep on coming.)
It is worth watching the responses as they make one last stupid comment about showing the "little bastards a thing or two and driving them back home"....to which Moore responds...."Sir...the little bastards are home!" Lots of eggs on the politico's faces...fun to watch....but... they just couldn't leave it in....too bad.
So often all our Church stuff is just as political and inane as we play our little games to promote the organization, the system and pretend it's all about the people. What's in our hearts is what always comes out though, no matter how we sugar coat everything...it comes out.
I'll touch on the second thing we never are supposed to talk about.....Religion. The best scene in the entire movie was left on the cutting room floor... because....in a movie that was just as full of religious and spiritual issues as it was political issues....this one was a bridge too far.... this one was about Jesus.
:)
