I support "We Were Soldiers" as the best of the Viet Nam movies.

Rating: Null/10 (17 August 2007)

My late husband, a West Point graduate, was in VN in 1965 as an adviser to the South Vietnamese Army. He received 2 Bronze Medals with the V device as well as the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge & several awards from the VN government. He cared deeply for the Vietnamese people with whom he lived that year, and was proud to have served. He was there just before this battle occurred.
When the movies about Viet Nam started coming out, he was horrified by the way they depicted the war & he refused to see most of them. "We Were Soldiers" was made after his death in 2001. I went to see it alone because I had the feeling this one would be different. It was, & I cried when it was over because Sam wasn't there to see it with me. That was the Army he knew, not the Army of "Platoon". Among other criticisms,he said he never saw drugs being used AT ALL during his year there.
I have a friend who served with Col. Moore (later to become a General) & he has talked with him about the movie & the book from which it was made. Moore said the the movie was at least 85% factual, the way it really was. And Joe Galloway, the reporter, also has said that it was well-done. He has been back to VN in the last few years and actually met with the officer who was leading the North Vietnamese they were fighting. They shook hands & the General said to Galloway "I'm glad I did not kill you."
As for people thinking that "Platoon" is THE factual movie on that sad war, yes Oliver Stone was there. When the movie was seen by the veteran who was Stone's Company Commander at the time, he was enraged. (This comes from an American Legion Magazine). He called Stone & asked "Where the "bleep" did you get all that stuff you put in the movie? It's not fair to misrepresent our guys that way." Stone's reply was that he took dramatic license.
In closing, I'll just say that I have not spoken with a single VN vet who was not supportive of "We Were Soldiers". A wonderful movie, and it's based on the truth.... no "dramatic license" needed