Character Analysis Of The Movie We Were Soldiers

James R. McDonough sets a spectacular example of what it is to be a second lieutenant in the United States Army and what it is truly like to lead a group of enlisted soldiers for the first time. Lieutenant McDonough, a graduate of West Point, was deployed as a platoon leader in a small fort with the mission of holding a Vietnamese village out of the hands of the Viet Cong. When he arrived, Lieutenant McDonough discovered that the former Lieutenant and platoon leader of the 2d Platoon, Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 503d Infantry (Airborne) hardly ever left his

The movie “Twelve O’ Clock High” is a case study in the application of leadership theory during World War Two. Gregory Peck portrays Brigadier General Savage, a United States Army Air Force officer thrust into a situation that requires a maximum effort both on the ground and in the air as he attempts to re-invigorate an undisciplined, anxiety ridden, and ineffective combat unit. Throughout the movie we observe Peck’s character employing a variety of leadership methods, but ultimately discovering that true combat effectiveness and cohesion is accomplished through a

The film The War Room is a documentary about Bill Clinton that has very little to do with Bill Clinton himself. The primary focus of the film is devoted to the team of campaign strategists that got Clinton to the presidency. The two main players the film focuses on are James Carville--the Lead Strategist for the Clinton campaign and George Stephanopoulos the Communications Director. The film follows them and their team of campaign strategists and experts as they try to get Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton, to the presidency. The documentary highlights many key moments in Clinton’s campaign, for example the Gennifer Flowers scandal. However, the film showcases what was happening behind closed doors in the War Room, where Clinton’s

The Patriot. A person who is willing to fight for their country against enemies. The Patriot begins in the year 1776 in the colony of South Carolina. Mel Gibson plays a planation farmer who fought in the French-Indian war named Benjamin Martin. A War was about to begin and Benjamin wanted no share partaking in the soon-to-be American Revolutionary War. He was more concerned about his two eldest sons who wanted to fight under General George Washington. The beginning of the movie starts out with Benjamin Martin peacefully living with his kids whom no longer have a living mother. Benjamin’s oldest son, Gabriel, joins the war without permission from his father. As the rest of the family are at home one afternoon, Colonel William Travington burns the Martin Plantation to the ground and his second oldest son was killed immediately for interrupting Travington’s plan. Benjamin finds a way to seek revenge because of the rage he experiences after his family is hurt. He begins to realize that he needs to fight for his children and he will not do it alone. Both Benjamin and his oldest son, Gabriel, decide to join the militia as a way of showing what they are capable of. Throughout the film, Benjamin Martin becomes a soldier whom others respect and admire. He shows the militia what it means to truly care for not only his men, but also for his family. As the film progresses, a turn of events take place that show Benjamin’s continued want of revenge against General Charles Cornwallis. The Continentals and the militia soon commence the battle at Cowpens. This is when Benjamin Martin meets his enemy, Travington, who murdered his two eldest sons. After a drawn-out battle, Benjamin stabs Travington in the neck and kills him for the sake of his children. It is then that General Cornwallis retreats his forces and the rest celebrate. Even though some portions of The Patriot aren’t as accurate as we perceive, it is a film full of war and despair, but also a film that contributes to the importance of dignity and the love for one’s family.

Tomorrow When The War Began is a well-known novel written by the Australian writer John Marsden, detailing the seige of Australia by an unknown power. In this book, the author draws out both the inferior and superior side of the characters in the various circumstances faced during war. This is clearly illustrated at the beginning of the book when the characters Homer, Kevin and Ellie take a journey to Hell. However when they returned, they realised that they were involved in a war. To suit this sudden realisation, they changed both their approaches and attitudes. These significant character changes reveal a completely different side of them, resulting in the considerable difference of character even when accompanied by their closest companions. Consequently, their friendship was brought to a whole new level. All of the changes is attributed to the realisation of the war, and it would be true to say that war brings out both the worst and best in people.

SFC (Ret.) Mark C. Daw is the subject of this Leader’s Legacy paper. SFC Daw served for over twenty years in the United States Army Signal Corps. SFC Daw served during the Cold War in the Berlin Brigade, in Operation Desert Storm, in Bosnia during Implementation Force (I-FOR), and in Operation Iraqi Freedom 04-06. A career paratrooper, SFC Daw’s leadership style involved leading from the front at all times, superior tactical and technical proficiency, a hand of discipline tempered by wisdom, and developing his Soldiers professionally and personally. SFC Daw’s example serves as one worthy of emulation by all Soldiers, regardless of expertise or field. I am the Soldier I am today because of SFC Daw.

Hal Moore challenged his man with intellectual stimulation (VL04, FRL, 2016), to think outside of the box, invoke their creativities to find innovative methods to improve existing tactics. His training philosophy is to empower lower ranks to train two levels up, so that when a leader dies, the next ranking person can take over command, (Ally, 2017), this vision would prove to be critical in saving the lives of his soldiers during the battle of Ia Drang Valley in 1965. Also when ordered to train his soldiers in the new methods and improve upon the newly designed air assault doctrine, he displayed dispositional flexibility (VL04, Change Management, 2017) by encouraging his men, he saw a positive opportunity despite difficulties of change in assault

In the short film, “The Negro Soldier,” the whole focus was to get African Americans to join the military. With the use of propaganda, the U.S. government hoped to promote getting African Americans to want to fight for their country. It hoped to instill patriotism in them. It showed that Germany and the Nazis had no respect for them and considered them the scum of the earth. It also portrayed them being accepted as equals into the American society. It was used to make them think they were wanted and play a major role in the success of the war against germany. And to ultimately make Germany and the Nazis look like the bad guys (destroying their monuments) instead of the racist America they lived in. It also portrayed African American soldiers prior contributions in previously fought wars as pivotal moments in American history. It made it seem like they were the reason for those victories. It also explained how the African American soldiers were honored with tributes, memorials, medals and parades for their service in the military. In the ongoing WWII, it was said that there were three times the number of African Americans soldiers in WWII than in WWI. Also, many more were getting commissioned and attending West Point and OCS (Officer Candidate School). African American men that were once printers, tailors, entertainers are now soldiers in the Army as gunners, tankers, radio operators, mechanics, quartermasters, and infantrymen. They were now the backbone of

The events in the movie We Were Soldiers, show Colonel Hal Moore’s qualities of effective leadership. Hal Moore shows confidence as the war goes on. His confidence in the war is first shown when Hal prays with Jack and is confident that they will win. Hal is also persistent even though things may go wrong.

“Charlie Wilson’s War” directed by Mike Nicholas is based on a true story of the early 1980s. This politically themed movie was released in the year 2007. The main components of the movie are politics, stubborn politicians, national leaders, war, international policies, national security and most importantly, funds. The movie depicts how funds are gathered through which Afghanis people acquired the weapons and required training to fight against the Russians. It is a story of a liberal democrat, a beautiful socialite, and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent, who made a pact to conquer the Russians in the Afghanistan. The main characters were played by Tom Hanks as a Congressperson Charlie Wilson, Julia Roberts as Texas socialite Joanne Herring and Philip Seymour Hoffman as CIA Agent Gust Avrakotos. All three of them played an extraordinary role in shaping the history of Afghanistan.

As human beings, we tend to be very picky on what conditions we want to live in. Do I want to live in the city or in the suburban part of town, near the beach or in the desert? For some people they do not have those same choices as others. In the novel, Girl at War, by Sara Nović, Sara or Ana Jurić, Sara’s birth name, narrates her in story first-person of when she was ten years old living in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb during the beginning of the Yugoslavian Civil War. She as well narrates her experience after escaping Croatia and now living and studying in New York as twenty year old college student. Sara and her sister, Rachel or Rahela, Rachel’s birth name, were the only survivors from their family, both of their parents were killed by

A film that I enjoyed and I constantly revisit is an English horror comedy film, Dog Soldiers. The reason why this film is worth watching is because of the realistic visual effects used to portray the werewolves in the movie, effective visual elements, and the unpredictable plot.

The movie in which I chose to do my movie analysis on was not one from the list provided. However, it is one of my all-time favorite movies The Band of Brothers a miniseries by HBO. I chose to do this one over the other because not only is it very entertaining and keeps you want to watch more, just to see what happens to everyone invaded but also because of the history be hide the story. The fact that they used real life experiences to help make the film just made it that much better. I watch The Band of Brothers at least a few times a year so I was happy to do this assignment.

In the film “Ballad of a Soldier”, the director Chukhrai tells a story of a soldier who accidentally knocked out two enemy tanks and was rewarded to return home. On the way, he encountered series of events that changed his life forever. The main plot of this film begins with Alyosha running away from the enemy tanks for his life. In desperate moments, he found a weapon and helplessly fired at the tanks. Somehow, he knocked out two enemy tanks just in time when the air support came. This series of events sets the character of Alyosha, in which he was a very immature and inexperienced soldier at 19 years old who accidentally became a war hero. Though he is still naïve, he is truthful and good-hearted young man, as exemplified by his assistance on the invalid during his first leg of the trip. Then he bribed the guard soldier Gavrilkin with a can of beef to train hop illegally to continue his trip. Later, he met the Shura, who was a beautiful young woman train hopping like Alyosha did. As a main character of this film, Shura was an insecure person who feared that other people would take advantage of her. Therefore, she pretends to be mature and told Alyosha that she was going to meet her husband. The two developed a friendship during their trip on the train, and was then discovered by the same guard soldier. The guard soldier was very upset and demanded more bribery. Alyosha was again lucky to encounter the lieutenant, who respected him as a hero. Then, Alyosha and Shura met up

Moore seemed to be lacking in the four main areas/pre-requisites for leadership which are (Gonos; Gallo, 2013):