10 Best War Movie Scenes Of All Time
5. We Were Soldiers - The Battle Of The La Drang Valley
We Were Soldiers is an exceptionally well-made war movie, as it's based on a similarly named book that details the combat experiences of Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore. The film's main focus is the United States' first large-unit engagement of the Vietnam War.
The First and Second Battalions of the 7th Cavalry Regiment engage the North Vietnamese Army in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, which pitted an American force of 400 cavalry Soldiers against 4,000 combatants of the NVA. The combat scene is violent and holds true to most accounts of the real-world battle during the war.
Much of the scene's intensity rests in the buildup to the engagement, which erupts with the destruction brought by rocket fire. The men disembark their aircraft, take up positions, and engage the enemy in a series of skirmishes that see casualties mount on both sides.
During the battle, Mel Gibson, as Harold Moore, calls in an airstrike at "Danger Close," which was a last-ditch effort to hold off the approaching enemy. One squad of his own Soldiers is taken out by the attack, but Moore manages to brush it off and continue his command of the battlefield.
Despite their overwhelming majority, the NVA fails to hold its position, and the American Soldiers stand victorious at the battle's conclusion.