Corrected entry: In the scene just following the tragic village-burning episode the black soldiers were digging foxholes discussing their bad feelings concerning the killings. During the discussion they used the word "Holmes" when addressing each other. The phrase "Holmes" was coined in reference to the Boxer Larry Holmes who didn't win the heavy weight championship title until 1978, a good decade after the events in the movie were to take place.
Corrected entry: After the brief fight between Barnes and Chris, when Barnes has Chris pinned, he cuts him below the left eye with a knife.In the next scene Chris has no cut on his face or any marks.
Correction: Chris has a cut mark on his face for the rest of the movie.
Corrected entry: The scene is when The new guy (Charlie Sheen) is first initiated to the troops after reporting to his outfit. The rest of the platoon are sitting around doing weed and drinking Budweiser from a can.... you will notice the absence of pull tabs in which to open the cans of beer. The beer cans shown are opened ones like they use today. Back then Beer or any other beverages from a can during the 1960s to the early 1970s always had pull tabs, not like the ones shown.
Correction: All beer cans I ever saw from Feb 68 to 69 were the ones you used an old fashion "Church Key" can opener.
Corrected entry: It seems the plane that drops napalm is an F16, but the F16 entered in action in 1978, not 1967.
Correction: It wasn't an F-16. It was a Northrop F-5 which was in use at the time.
Corrected entry: After the final battle at the end of the film, there is a scene where Francis who was in the hole with Taylor during the final battle, stabs himself in his right thigh so that he will be injured for the second time and sent out. In a scene shortly there after we see Francis loaded onto a helicopter and the bandage is on his left thigh and not the right one where he stabbed himself.
Correction: Francis did stab himself in the left thigh.
Corrected entry: When the platoon find the enemy bunker complex, the maps in the booby trapped box are of Wales and Ireland.
Correction: The NVA are deliberately trying to lure someone into setting off the booby trap, but it would be foolish of them to use anything of actual intelligence value. Some genuine but otherwise useless maps of somewhere completely different in the world when seen at a glance would fit that perfectly.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Chris Taylor is shooting at the feet of the Vietnamese man and shouting at him to dance, this action would have, at very least, injured the Vietnamese man severely. This is because of the fact that the M-16 rifle used an extremely high velocity bullet which, because of its high velocity and small size (I believe it was .223 caliber), broke up into fragments upon impact. In this case, fragments from the impact of the bullets into the ground would have flown up and caused a certain degree of injury.
Correction: Not if the ground was loose soil, and absorbed the fragments. Besides which, he may have been getting hit by small fragments, but due to fear and adrenalin, he continued hopping around.
Corrected entry: Just after the scene when the soldiers burn a village and they are walking in a field along with some civilians, they are all noticeably left-handed (they carry their rifles with the trigger on their left side, pointing them to the right). The image is a reversed (flipped) shot.
Correction: The soldiers carrying their rifles with the muzzles pointed to the right is technically a correct detail. You'll notice the soldiers are walking in a double column formation. All rifles are pointed outboard in this type of formation for safety's sake. Therefore, the soldiers in the right hand column would always carry their weapons left handed to prevent shooting the soldiers in the left hand column if they were suddenly ambushed. It is standard practise in U.S. ground forces to do so.
Corrected entry: Some of the U.S. soldiers appear to be carrying M16 carbines (often referred to as the "Car 15"). The short M16s of the period were known as XM177s and had a noticeably shorter barrel. The CAR 15 version was not used until after the Vietnam period.
Correction: The CAR-15 was first introduced into the Army's inventory in 1965. It was usually used by specialized units (such as long range recon patrols) but was often issued to squad leaders and above in line infantry units as well. It is completely appropriate for Elais (Squad Leader) and Barnes (Platoon Sergeant) to be carrying them.
Corrected entry: At the end after Charlie sheen has shot Barnes an APC comes to them and administers help. When that APC starts to come out of the jungle you can see it is flying a flag. This flag is not the US flag however, it is the Nazi flag.
Correction: Character decision, not a movie mistake. As we can see in the movie, and many others, soldiers in a warzone where discipline is not enforced rigorously, can decorate their equipment and themselves with loads of weird stuff (like writing on helmets, headbands, cigarettes stuck into sleeves or helmets, pin-up photos, etc).
Corrected entry: In the ambush scene, Sgt. Elias guesses what the enemy's plan is, and says 'I've seen it happen: Ia Drang in '66'. But the Ia Drang battle was in 1965. (01:07:10)
Correction: Although the November 1965 battle was the most famous, there were other skirmishes at smaller scale battles in Ian Drang Valley during US involvement in Vietnam, including 1966.
Corrected entry: After the scene when Sandy and Sal get blown-up at the camp Taylor and Mannie are sent to go out on point. In the initial scene when they are told to go out, if you look in Mannie's helmet at his pack of cigarettes they are Marlboro, in the next scene when he is on watch the cigarettes are Kool.
Correction: We don't know the elapsed time between being sent on point and when he was actually on watch. It's entirely possible that he finished his Marlboros, and took another pack of whatever was available, possibly the Kools. If his favorite brand wasn't available, likely he'd take whatever was around.
Corrected entry: This movie is about US Army soldiers, but the actors wear the tan US Marine Corps web belts with frame buckles. Army web belts are black and the buckles are solid rather than frames.
Correction: Although it is true that army belts are black, it cannot be said that the army wore only solid buckles in Viet-Nam. I was an infantryman in the 1st Cavalry Division in 1969 and can assure you that the buckle I (and everyone I knew) in the field wore frame type belt buckles. There was good reason for this. Would anyone in their right mind wear a "shiny" brass belt buckle in the field?
Correction: "Homes" or "home" has nothing to do with Larry Holmes. It's a term that was used by soldiers to address others from the same stateside city or town. For example, a soldier from Chicago would address another soldier from Chicago by calling him Home, Homes, or Homey. It's actually short for "Home Town." Although it was first used by black soldiers, it was adopted by everyone.