Mel Gibson may not appear in front of the camera these days as often as he used to, but he was a huge star in the '80s, '90s, and '00s. Lethal weapon and Mad Max franchises as well as 1995 Brave heartGibson explored a variety of genres throughout his nearly 50-year career, including the war film genre.
Gibson doesn't have many war films to his credit, but he has starred in The Patriot (2000), which is set during the American Revolutionary War, and directed Summit of the mountain (2016), a World War II film. Brave heart it could also be considered a war film. Gibson's work in the genre also extended to the Vietnam Warwith a film that may have received somewhat lukewarm reviews from critics, but is now receiving praise from an expert for its portrayal of an important battle.
We were soldiers with high precision scoring
Mel Gibson's war film fixes some key combat elements
Former Green Beret David Harris analyzes selected scenes from We were soldiers (2002), awarding the film a near-perfect score for its accuracy. Directed by Randall Wallace, the Vietnam War film chronicles the 1965 battle of Ia Drang, in which Gibson's Lt. Col. Hal Moore and his unit attempt to capture a position of strategic importance. The film, which also stars Sam Elliott, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear and Keri Russell, received somewhat lukewarm reviews from critics and currently has a 63% critics score. Rotten tomatoes.
In a recent video for InsiderHarris looks specifically at We were soldiers' representation of a "Broken Arrow" situation, or one in which American soldiers are overrun and call in air support near their own position. According to the former Green Beret, the film ultimately portrays a broken arrow as accurate while also featuring explosions that look real. Check out Harris' analysis and his score for the We were soldiers sequence below:
This scene depicts the Battle of Ia Drang during the Vietnam War, and the Americans were so overrun that they had to call in “broken arrow” for air support. When a soldier shouts “broken arrow” it basically means that you are being overrun, your position and that you need as much air support as possible.
Because they actually told the commander where to stack it, how much he had, what he had, those are real messages that you would tell your guy. You don't want to send two planes at the same elevation, so stack them. So they're flying, they have their own runway and they don't have to worry about hitting other planes. You can stack them because of the weapon systems they have, like I needed this to drop before then. If you're getting run over, I've seen a play turn offensive once, no matter how necessary it was.
You also have a thing with mortars and it’s called “near danger.” If I'm getting run over, at some point I might say to him, “Hey, I need you to get this close.” And usually, when you leave danger close, they will ask for the commander's initials. We need someone in charge saying, “Okay.”
I rate this at about a nine [out of 10]. I thought these explosions were realistic because from what I saw of drops, with the grass and everything, depending on what you were dropping, I'm pretty sure that's probably what they looked like in real life.
What Were The Soldiers' Degree of Precision Means for the Film
Another expert shared a conflicting analysis
It is worth noting that a previous Insider video also included We were soldiersbut the expert on this case was military historian Bill Allison. Instead of giving the Vietnam War film a nine, as Harris did, Allison only gives five, saying that "fails on many levels." Allison questioned historical inaccuracies related to the use of tunnels and the People's Army of Vietnam's confusion with the Viet Cong.
It is clear, then, that We were soldiers It's somewhat confusing in terms of precision. Ground combat and explosions may have elements of realism, but they fall short of historical detail. The film earned a more positive Popcornmeter score of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, but also fell short at the box office, grossing just $114 million on a $75 million budget. Clearly, however, the Gibson the film still has elements worth celebrating 22 years later.
Source: Insider