The Shrine

<div style='font: 9pt Garamond; text-align: left; '>Just saw "We were Soldiers". Damn good war movie and a bit of a different look at the Vietnam War than what Hollywood has typically given us.</div>

<div style='font: 14pt "Sans Serif"; text-align: justify; padding: 0% 15% 0% 15%; '>Been meaning to see that. Just saw Harry Potter. Not bad at all. In fact, I thought it was pretty good. I actually thought some parts might be too scary for really, really little kids....</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>I kind of got sick of seeing ad after ad for American war movies after Sept. 11th, so I never went to any of them. May rent this one sometime.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Black Hawk Down was surprisingly dull, Hart's War was OK at best, and Behind Enemy Lines was just "meh". Haven't seen We Were Soldiers yet....</div>

<div style='font: ; text-align: left; '>i also liked it... Mel was good in it</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Garamond; text-align: left; '>Those 3 don't come close to We Were Soldiers. Every print of Behind Enemy Lines should be burned as a gesture of goodwill toward mankind.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Which is why I'm reserving judgement. I heard it was the best of the 4 post-9/11 war films.....and it doesn't have far to go</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>So were Platoon and Full Metal Jacket</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Garamond; text-align: left; '>...both of those fit right into the streotypical Vietnam movie that only shows the dark twisted side of what our soldiers did over there, and hardly ever touch on the other side fighting in that conflict. We Were Soldiers gives Vietnam Vets the respect they earned but never received, as well as putting a more human face on the Viet-Kong.

If you mention those two movies to someone that was actually over there, they'd probably tell you that they're both crap as far as fairly portraying what actually happened over there. Same with Apocalypse Now. We Were Soldiers is based on a true story written by a man right in the middle of that conflict. While I enjoyed all three of those movies, they're far removed from the reality of the Vietnam war.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "Fine Hand"; text-align: left; '>Yep. I love Full Metal Jacket (mainly for the opening 15 minutes) and liked Platoon. But When We Were Soldiers was a far better movie. I think this was the US Army's first major battle against the Viet Cong.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Platoon was written and directed by Oliver Stone who is a Vietnam veteran.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>And Full Metal Jacket was based on a book The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford who was a Combat Correspondent in the Marines during Vietnam.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Do a little research.....</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "Fine Hand"; text-align: left; '>What Esque means is that Platoon, Boys from Comany C, Hamburger Hill and FMJ depicted a lot of pot smoking soldiers. We Were Soldiers is a straight out war movie (with some scenes from their wives' POV).</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>As far as I know, the difference is that the soliders in We Were Soldiers were the people who were in the military before the war began.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Garamond; text-align: left; '>My opinion is based on my own experience with my father being a vietnam vet and an officer in the local VFW. I've spoken with numerous vets and their opinion almost unanimously reflects what I wrote above.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt Garamond; text-align: left; '>I know plenty about the war, don't worry. Try talking to some vets that were over there instead...</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>..and each vet's view was different. Platoon was Stone's view, doesn't mean that it was wrong just because everyone copied it</div>