On this episode of Our American Stories, we Were Soldiers is a motion picture about the Vietnam War from writer/director Randall Wallace and starring Mel Gibson. Randall's here to tell the story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
We were Soldiers, as a motion picture about the Vietnam
War from writer director Randall Wallace, which stars mel Gibson
Gibson playing the role of Lieutenant Colonel Al Moore. Here's
(00:30):
Randall to tell the story of his film.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I was sitting in my office working on a story
while Brave Heart was still in production. I was writing
the next story because I didn't know if Braveheart would
be a titanic sort of failure or a monstrous success.
Either way, I needed to have momentum in a news story.
(00:54):
You need to feel that your best work is coming,
not behind you. So I was working on a story.
In the phone rang and it was an executive from
Warner Brothers friend of mine, who said, listen, we didn't
know about Brave Heart and we wish we had, and
(01:17):
we would love to fly you to Hawaii to meet
Kevin Costner and talk about ideas with Kevin Costner. Would
you be willing to do that? Like, yeah, I would,
And they made reservations for me, and I went to
a bookstore to pick up something to read on the flight,
and it came across the cover of We Were Soldiers
(01:38):
Once and Young. It showed a young lieutenant whose name
was Rick Rescorla, who ended up an incredible hero in
his own right, not only in Vietnam, but also at
the World Trade Center where he lost his life going
back up into the World Trade Center to make sure
that all of his people had gotten out safely. And
(02:00):
I read the book, I came across the statement in
the prologue, Hollywood has gotten the story of the Vietnam
veteran wrong every damn time, wedding the knives of twisted
politics on the bones of our dead brothers. And I
knew from that moment I was into this story.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
But it was the part of.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
The story, and the combat scenes were of course incredible,
But there was the story of a woman named Barbara Gagan,
whose husband was a young lieutenant who died going out
onto the battlefield to carry a wounded soldier off.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Do you know the most common thing an American soldier
says when he's dying on the battlefield, tell my wife,
I love her.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And Hal had gone to visit her, and he asked
if he could go to pray at her husband's grave.
He was buried not at our Wellington but a family plot.
Jack Gagan was Catholic, and Barbara wrote so movingly of
letting hal go out. She stayed back in the car
(03:11):
because she wanted how to have his moment at Jack's grave,
and that she saw his shoulder shake as he wept,
and that kind of love and devotion for his men
I recognized to be unique and extraordinary. And then as
I got to know his wife and to find that
(03:33):
her courage was at least the equal of his, I
was profoundly moved. But when I read the book, I
called my agent and said, somebody must own the movie
rights to this. You tell them that I want to
throw my hat in the ring. I would love to
write the adaptation of this book. My agent called back
(03:55):
a couple of days later and said, these guys won't
sell the screen rights. They believe that Hollyoo would mangle
their story and would treat them like they were baby killers,
and they won't do it.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Our responsibility to do honor and tribute to the guys
that were there. Yeah, slightly intimidating. In fact, they complained
about it in the book how Hollywood always screws it up,
and it's interesting. The indictment was, if I could be specific,
wetting their twisted political knives on the bones of our
dead brothers so that it becomes very personal. And that's
(04:29):
the aspect from which I think we approached The film
was a very personal one.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
I can't promise you then I will bring you all live.
But this I swear before you and before Almighty God,
that when we go into battle, I will be the
first to set foot on the field, and I will
(04:55):
be the last to step off.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
And I will leave no one behind. So help me God.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And so I got their address and I wrote to
them and said, I'm going to send you a screenplay.
It's called Braveheart. It's being made. You haven't seen it yet.
No one's seen it yet. It's not finished, but the
screenplay is. And read that. If you like it, call me.
If you don't, then sorry, I've wasted your time. So
(05:34):
they read it and they called me.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
I said, mister Wallace, I don't know you. So I
have a question for you. And he said what's your question?
And I said, do you believe in heroes? And he
said I do.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And they said, okay, what do you want to do.
And I said, I can go to a studio and
get them to buy the movie rights. But no matter
what they tell you, if they buy your movie rights,
they will control everything that happens to that story. If
you let me buy it, I'll pay you my own money,
and I'll make you deal that it's less upfront because
(06:14):
I have limited money, but I'll make you a deal
that you'll make more money and success than you would
have made with them. And if you don't like what
I do, you'll know who to come shoot. And they
went deal.
Speaker 7 (06:27):
And Rendall is the only director in Hollywood who could
have done it and done it right.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So that's how that came about and how became one
of the mentors in my life. He taught me leadership,
leadership that I use every day of my life.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
Now, this movie shows the American soldier as he should
be shown, not as a doper, not as a guy
playing Russian Roulette in Saigon. Shows shows the American soldier
as he really was in Vietnam.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to Randall
Wallace for sharing the story of We Were Soldiers and
it is indeed true that the movie We Were Soldiers,
our Hollywood film finally got the story of the Vietnam
War right, the story of We Were Soldiers and how
it was made. Here on our American Stories, this is
(07:30):
Lee Habib, host of our American Stories. Every day we
set out to tell the stories of Americans past and present,
from small towns to big cities, and from all walks
of life doing extraordinary things. But we truly can't do
this show without you. Our shows are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to our Americanstories dot com and make
(07:52):
a donation to keep the stories coming. That's our American
Stories dot com.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
We were Soldiers, as a motion picture about the Vietnam
War from writer director Randall Wallace, which stars mel Gibson
Gibson playing the role of Lieutenant Colonel Al Moore. Here's
(00:30):
Randall to tell the story of his film.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I was sitting in my office working on a story
while Brave Heart was still in production. I was writing
the next story because I didn't know if Braveheart would
be a titanic sort of failure or a monstrous success.
Either way, I needed to have momentum in a news story.
(00:54):
You need to feel that your best work is coming,
not behind you. So I was working on a story.
In the phone rang and it was an executive from
Warner Brothers friend of mine, who said, listen, we didn't
know about Brave Heart and we wish we had, and
(01:17):
we would love to fly you to Hawaii to meet
Kevin Costner and talk about ideas with Kevin Costner. Would
you be willing to do that? Like, yeah, I would,
And they made reservations for me, and I went to
a bookstore to pick up something to read on the flight,
and it came across the cover of We Were Soldiers
(01:38):
Once and Young. It showed a young lieutenant whose name
was Rick Rescorla, who ended up an incredible hero in
his own right, not only in Vietnam, but also at
the World Trade Center where he lost his life going
back up into the World Trade Center to make sure
that all of his people had gotten out safely. And
(02:00):
I read the book, I came across the statement in
the prologue, Hollywood has gotten the story of the Vietnam
veteran wrong every damn time, wedding the knives of twisted
politics on the bones of our dead brothers. And I
knew from that moment I was into this story.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
But it was the part of.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
The story, and the combat scenes were of course incredible,
But there was the story of a woman named Barbara Gagan,
whose husband was a young lieutenant who died going out
onto the battlefield to carry a wounded soldier off.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Do you know the most common thing an American soldier
says when he's dying on the battlefield, tell my wife,
I love her.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And Hal had gone to visit her, and he asked
if he could go to pray at her husband's grave.
He was buried not at our Wellington but a family plot.
Jack Gagan was Catholic, and Barbara wrote so movingly of
letting hal go out. She stayed back in the car
(03:11):
because she wanted how to have his moment at Jack's grave,
and that she saw his shoulder shake as he wept,
and that kind of love and devotion for his men
I recognized to be unique and extraordinary. And then as
I got to know his wife and to find that
(03:33):
her courage was at least the equal of his, I
was profoundly moved. But when I read the book, I
called my agent and said, somebody must own the movie
rights to this. You tell them that I want to
throw my hat in the ring. I would love to
write the adaptation of this book. My agent called back
(03:55):
a couple of days later and said, these guys won't
sell the screen rights. They believe that Hollyoo would mangle
their story and would treat them like they were baby killers,
and they won't do it.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Our responsibility to do honor and tribute to the guys
that were there. Yeah, slightly intimidating. In fact, they complained
about it in the book how Hollywood always screws it up,
and it's interesting. The indictment was, if I could be specific,
wetting their twisted political knives on the bones of our
dead brothers so that it becomes very personal. And that's
(04:29):
the aspect from which I think we approached The film
was a very personal one.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
I can't promise you then I will bring you all live.
But this I swear before you and before Almighty God,
that when we go into battle, I will be the
first to set foot on the field, and I will
(04:55):
be the last to step off.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
And I will leave no one behind. So help me God.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And so I got their address and I wrote to
them and said, I'm going to send you a screenplay.
It's called Braveheart. It's being made. You haven't seen it yet.
No one's seen it yet. It's not finished, but the
screenplay is. And read that. If you like it, call me.
If you don't, then sorry, I've wasted your time. So
(05:34):
they read it and they called me.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
I said, mister Wallace, I don't know you. So I
have a question for you. And he said what's your question?
And I said, do you believe in heroes? And he
said I do.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And they said, okay, what do you want to do.
And I said, I can go to a studio and
get them to buy the movie rights. But no matter
what they tell you, if they buy your movie rights,
they will control everything that happens to that story. If
you let me buy it, I'll pay you my own money,
and I'll make you deal that it's less upfront because
(06:14):
I have limited money, but I'll make you a deal
that you'll make more money and success than you would
have made with them. And if you don't like what
I do, you'll know who to come shoot. And they
went deal.
Speaker 7 (06:27):
And Rendall is the only director in Hollywood who could
have done it and done it right.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So that's how that came about and how became one
of the mentors in my life. He taught me leadership,
leadership that I use every day of my life.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
Now, this movie shows the American soldier as he should
be shown, not as a doper, not as a guy
playing Russian Roulette in Saigon. Shows shows the American soldier
as he really was in Vietnam.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to Randall
Wallace for sharing the story of We Were Soldiers and
it is indeed true that the movie We Were Soldiers,
our Hollywood film finally got the story of the Vietnam
War right, the story of We Were Soldiers and how
it was made. Here on our American Stories, this is
(07:30):
Lee Habib, host of our American Stories. Every day we
set out to tell the stories of Americans past and present,
from small towns to big cities, and from all walks
of life doing extraordinary things. But we truly can't do
this show without you. Our shows are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to our Americanstories dot com and make
(07:52):
a donation to keep the stories coming. That's our American
Stories dot com.
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