We Were Soldiers (2002) - 21 mistakes

Continuity: In the beginning where the soldiers are ambushed. One person goes to blow the trumpet (puts it in his mouth) and then the next frame has an up close shot bringing it up to his mouth again.

Deliberate "mistake": During the last assault against the hill, a duo of helicopters is mowing down the Vietnamese soldiers with miniguns. In one shot, you can see one chopper coming up behind a tree, all guns blazing. However, the tree, which is in the way of the helicopters right side minigun, remains totally untouched, although, looking at the carnage the guns do to the Vietnamese soldiers, it should have been reduced to toothpicks.

Factual error: Just after Lyndon Johnson announces that the air mobile units will be sent to Vietnam (1965), a dance/party scene has everybody dancing and singing 'Hold On I'm Comin' by Sam and Dave. It was a hit, but not in 1965. It was a mid/late 1966 hit, almost a year after that party. The Ia Drang Valley battle took place in November, 1965, before that song was recorded.

Factual error: Towards the end of the movie, at the last fight scene, you see the 1st air cav charging the NVA. As they go over a hill, you see the NVA waiting for them and then a helicopter gunship hovers down and kills all of the enemy. The gunship was using mini-guns which fires 6,000 rounds a minute. These were not used in Vietnam until late 1967. and were not in-country in 1965. In 1965, the gunships had two Flex M-60 machineguns on each side.

Factual error: The helicopter pilots wear two-tone Nomex fireproof gloves - these were not in use yet in 1965. Black leather flying gloves were issued back then.

Audio problem: When Hal Moore is looking at the strong guy through the binoculars during training, the guy's mouth doesn't match what he is saying.

Continuity: 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.

Factual error: When "Broken Arrow" is given over the air, there are shots of Navy A-6's being launched from carriers. The paint scheme on the aircraft is a modern blue-grey camouflage, not the white pattern used during VietNam.

Continuity: During the transportation of the first wave of Air Cav soldiers (the one led by Lt. Col. Moore), the number of helicopters changes from around six, to around sixteen, then back to six.

Continuity: When Colonel Moore told the one soldier to tell his men to fire three rounds at anything that looks suspicious. Colonel Moore stood up and fired right away not giving the soldier any time to tell anyone.

Factual error: When Mel Gibson is ordering the soldiers at the dried river shore to expect an all out attack, text on screen tells us we are at dawn. Sunlight and shadow positioning reveals that it is actually 12 PM. Why didn't they film this at dusk? At least the light would have been more believable.

Revealing: The scene right after Mrs. Moore delivers the first batch of telegrams shows Lt. Col. Moore kneeling beside several "dead" soldiers. I could see at least the first four breathing.

Audio problem: In the scene where Col. Moore calls in 'Broken Arrow' Joe Galloway and Col. Moore are both firing M16's yet, they both sound different.

Other: Right before the NVA try to overrun the Command Post CSM Plummley slaps a magazine into his 1911 (pistol) and says, "Gentlemen, Prepare to defend yourselves." The mistake is that the hammer on his pistol is down, on a M1911A1 this indicates an empty chamber. Had he inserted a new magazine before the pistol was totally empty the hammer should have been in the cocked position. Had he emptied the pistol before reloading the slide should have been locked to the rear.

Factual error: In the scene where the Chinook brings the reporters to the field at the end they use a CH-47D model. The 228th A.S.H.B, the Cav's Chinook unit, used CH-47A models with a tapered tail and no conical shrouding around the engine air intakes. Also the last round window in front of the engines in the A model was removed and not the bubble type on the D models. The D model did not come into being till the late 60's / early 70's.

Factual error: Some scenes in the movie pertaining to activities at Fort Benning, Georgia are incorrect for the time period (1964-65, I believe). Scenes around the parachute training area (jump school) show a static display of a C-47 transport aircraft. I went through jump school in 1967 and the aircraft was not on display then. It is there today and was obviously there when the movie was being filmed.

Other: In the scene where Mel Gibson fires off a few rounds into the nearby woods and bushes to see if there are any NVAs, there is a M60 crew, the weird thing about them is that you can only see the muzzle flame from the M60 the first couple of rounds - after that there is no muzzle flame, but the M60 continues to fire at the same rate.

Revealing: Snake Shit's helicopter has no holes in its windshield. Every other part of the helicopter is riddled with bullet holes except his perfect, spotless windshield.

Other: When the black guy from their base gets shot in the head the camera slows down and you can see his forehead starts bleeding but there's no hole on his helmet. [Actually there is. If you pause it, you can see it on the (his) right side of his helmet. Although it looks as if it exploded outwards instead of inwards as a bullethole would.]

Revealing: Towards the end of the movie, a VC soldier holds a shoulder fired rocket launcher. If you watch carefully, you can see the rocket wobbling as if it's made of rubber.