75% real, 25% Hollywood but outstanding for being realistic!

Rating: 10/10 (27 February 2004)

As far as I am aware, this film is the first and only film to make any attempt whatsoever to reflect what fighting in Vietnam was like, and how we fought. Great attention to detail and adherance to what generally happened, with input from the very people who were there and wrote the book upon which served as the basis for the movie paid off. There was none of the standard Hollywood venom that characterizes the vast majority of Hollywood films set in Vietnam. There were some things that were pretty ridiculous, like an NVA soldier walking up to Mel Gibson without firing his weapon, like a dieing soldier saying something like he was glad to give his life for his country, like the setting looking little like Vietnam. But overall, the film was right on target. I served in this unit later in the war and was really shaken by the film. It was too close to reality that I had long ago buried. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get an idea of how soldiers really fought.