Trailer: Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan

I’m a Vietnam Veteran, eleven months starting just after Long Tan. I just had a look at the trailer, hoping that above all else, the movie would be authentic – that a fierce life-or-death jungle battle involving Aussie soldiers hopelessly outnumbered, might be dramatic enough for audiences. No such luck. Just one example: One digger, in the midst of the battle, who should have been a fairly busy digger at the time, pauses and says to another digger, “We’re not going to make it are we.” Now I know I’m watching with a fairly unique perspective, but would the nurses and bank staff and bus drivers watching this movie be moved by that line or would it irritate like a line from the worst of American movies? So by all means take a look, you might find it entertaining and you might leave with an impression of the Aussie digger in a fight. But it will be an absolutely wrong impression. The Long Tan Aussies were among the best trained, modest, laconic warriors in history. They didn’t brag about how brave they were but neither did they whine in fear when they were under fire. For hour after hour they did what they had trained thousands of hours to do. But was that too boring for a movie? Does it need to be a soapie? There was smoke and explosions and machine guns firing and bullets flying and Signalmen yelling into radios, not to mention the damaged and dead bodies. I wonder why that wasn’t dramatic enough to make a movie?