During the scene where the cameraman is helping carry the badly burned US soldier he grabs the wounded man's legs. The leg skin & muscle slides down to his ankles exposing bone due to the severity of the burned flesh. A short while later the camera man is carrying the wounded man and his legs are blackened but no bone is showing. See more...
After Hal Moore calls "Broken Arrow" the shots of the A6 Intruders taking off from the aircraft carrier are taken from Flight Of The Intruder. See more...
Directed by Randall Wallace, starring Chris Klein, Greg Kinnear, Madeleine Stowe, Mel Gibson, Sam Elliott (add more)
Genres: Action, Drama, History, War
The "questions" section is for any random questions that occurred to you while watching this film, or anything you didn't entirely understand, and which Google or the IMDb can't help with. Submit them as a question, and hopefully someone will answer (the bold comments in brackets) - check back regularly. If the answer is wrong, or missing information, please use the "clarify answer" option. Don't feel limited - want to know what music played in a certain scene? Whether this was the first film to use a certain effect? Here's the place to ask!
What does the term "Fire in the hole" mean? It is used in this and many other military films. [It was originally a mining term. A hole was drilled in a seam and then dynamite pushed into it. As an explosion in a mine is always dangerous, the other miners were warned that there was "fire in the hole". It's since been adopted for most other situations involving explosives.]
An entry on the wearing of full combat gear and arms on the transport to 'Nam has been corrected, reason being that this is done today. This is correct, as rapid deployment in zones with little or nonexistent local military infrastructure exists requires every soldier to be operational when hitting ground. But was this the case at the time in Vietnam? Sure, this is early in the war, before a full scale upbuild but were incoming troops really transported this way, even in '65? [Yes and no. This has been done on and off since the 101st Airborned dropped on D-Day. Mainly it depends on the area being travelled through and the destination.]
Answered by Grumpy Scot
The request "Fire for effect." is used in this and many other war films when calling in artillery support. What is the meaning of this term? [After a series of individual rounds are fired to insure that the artillery is on target, the entire battery then fires as many rounds as possible to have the greatest effect on the enemy.]
The early versions of the M16 had severe problems with jamming. There may have been several causes; instructions issued that the rifle was "self-cleaning", improper ammunition design, improper magazine design (therefore in a later stage 18 rounds instead of 20 were used in the mag). It is not necessarily a mistake, certainly not by the filmmaker, but there are several writers mentioning serious casualties amongst fighting troops specifically because of jamming M16 rifles. Why does this book/film not even include a hint of that problem which surely must have existed at that time and place? [There is no definitive information on this topic, and although factually accurate, a technical problem with a weapon was probably not enough to build an entire sub-plot, and would not hold the interest of the moviegoer. There were enough casualties without having to take into consideration weapon malfunction.]
One of the deleted scenes has a young soldier relating a story about one of his tough old SNCOs who was terrified of Plumley. This tough old Sergeant arrives on parade naked except for two Medals of Honor. Is this possible? As far as I can work out the last dual recipients were during WW1 - posthumously. [Smedley Butler and Daniel Daly. Both were awarded the medal of honor twice, and lived to tell about it. Both were also U.S. Marines. More info here at http://www.grunts.net/legends/butler.html and http://www.cmohs.org/recipients/double.htm.]
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