A Film Worth Watching

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2008)

This film surprised me because I did not realize it was about the very beginning of our involvement in Vietnam, and it begins with the French being massacred in 1954. We move up in time to 1964 and 1965. Barry Pepper is particularly memorable as a non-combat soldier carrying a camera, taking photographs. It's beautiful to see the black & white shots he's taken in contrast to the fighting behind him in color. The scene with him at the end talking to Mel Gibson is moving and realistic. Gibson's eyes fill with tears because he feels he should have died having lost so many men, and he asks Pepper to write about what happened here in this valley, the la Drang Valley, The Valley of Death.
Another lovely quality to this film is showing the Vietnamese side of the battle, and their Commander making decisions. We see a dead Vietnamese soldier's diary showing a photograph of his wife and pages written in Vietnamese. This is a thoughtful remembrance for all the men who died in Vietnam, not just French and Americans.
This has star quality all over it. The music is uneven sometimes, and I feel it could have been a 10 star film had a stronger musical score been developed. However there's plenty of pathos, sad and terrible battle scenes, and the painful delivery of letters to the wives of dead soldiers back in the States. Definitely a film worth watching.