Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Question about the movie "We were soldiers"

I just finished the movie and had a question about the landscape.

Is there anywhere in Vietnam that looks remotely like the dry grassy areas where most of the battle scenes were filmed?

I'd ask my dad (he did two tours),but he really doesn't like to talk about his time over there.

Just a guess, but I'd say the movie was filmed in California, which is strikingly un-Vietnamlike (although parts of it could justifiably be called a jungle).

California is exactly where I thought of as I watched the movie.

Most VN movies are filmed in Hawaii or the Phillipines

to all,

i THINK that i remember that MUCH of the movie was made at Ft Benning, GA.

yours, PG

IIRC it was filmed in Northern Cal.

Have you SEEN the movie? No chance it was Hawaii or PI.

Quick google search...

http://www.military.com/ContentFiles/WWS_leadstoryLF_022502

Yes there are areas like that in the Ia Drang Valley including the area around LZ X-RAY.

LZ X-RAY

Googled it up... Northern California...

Buy the way, I finally watched it a couple of months ago, the saddest war movie I have seen, too real for me a few times and I had tears in my eyes many times while watching it.

Nothing can capture what it was really like (I WAS there) but it sure stirred up a bunch of memories. But without the smells and actual visuals & sounds coming from all directions it is not the same, ask any vet, and if he will talk at all about it that is what he will tell you.

Roger that Terry.I never had to walk in your boots but was not far from the treetops on many ground support missions.Was at LZ English and Xray a time or two but several years after you were back stateside.Gee that must make you an older phart than me!!

Flyboy - I agree with everything you said...

Terry really IS an old phart!

A little respect for one of the resident Dinosaurs thank you!

You don't expect us to start NOW, do you?

I can dream.

The question isn't "Where was this movie filmed?" but "Where are the dry, grassy locations where some of those battle scenes were filmed?"

Most movies today are filmed in several locations � Scenes A and X here, B and Y there, and C and Z somewhere else. It's common to shoot interiors in one location while one or more "second units" is/are shooting exteriors in one or more other locations � maybe even in two or more other countries, simultaneously.

I've never been to Viet Nam, of course, but obviously a dry, grassy location in no way resembles the high canopy or the dense undergrowth of a tropical or semitropical jungle.

I'd assume that a scenically kaleidoscopic movie like We Were Soldiers, including even some of the battle scenes, was shot in a variety of locations � stars, supporting cast, extras, long shots, medium shots, close-ups, interiors, atmospherics, etc, in several distant and widely different locations.

One big reason for the "continuity errors" that we often see in adjacent shots is that, for example, a close-up of an actor was shot in a studio, and the very next shot was made much later (or sooner) somewhere else. A still photographer on the set records the close of each shot, and the set-up crew carefully studies those stills in setting-up the next shot. They do a pretty good job, usually, but despite all their care, they do miss details � like, for instance, a picture on the wall slightly askew in one shot and hanging straight in the very next shot.

Yeah most I have seen look like Kauai.

Those RVN scenes were filmed at Ft. Hunter-Ligget, CA. I have been there and looked at the terrain. It is very similar to the terrain around LZ X-ray. Not all of RVN is jungle. Much of I-Corps is more scrub-like at lower elevations. Even much of the jungle was defoliated and consisted of tall grass and scrub under the dead upper canopy.

The mountain adjacent to X-ray was triple canopy jungle. That's why Giap had his divisions there; to conceal them from the air.

X-ray was a natural opening on the flat next to the mountain and the closest air insertion point to the mountain. That's why the 1st Cav used it. Giap close to attack the US battalion on the flat before they could reinforce and before they could get to his positions on the mountain. In retrospect, it was probably a mistake, IMO.