I picked this up off Amazon for $7 and it was well worth the price. It's an amazing battle once you start digging into it. Great film! - Bandit -------------- Film: Danger Close (2019) Actors: Travis Fimmel, Luke Bracey Recommendation: IMDB 6.8, Bandit’s 7.8 Synopsis: The battle of Long Tan, Vietnam (18 August 1966) between 108 Australian soldiers of the 6RAR and 2500 Viet Cong soldiers of the 275th Regiment. My opinion: Excellent casting, acting, scripts and sets. I found Luke Bracey’s acting and character portrayal to be exceptional; however, Fimmel’s not so much. I haven’t studied the battle thoroughly however it seems the film does indeed follow the actually events even though some of them seem remarkable but newly arrived in Vietnam the Australians were going through a learning curve and much changed after this battle. All-in-all an excellent war film about a very interesting battle. Note: A few details that didn’t come out in the film: The Australians loadout was only 3 magazines. I have to double check this because I find it astonishing but that is what a few sources reported. Plus, ammunition delivered was not preloaded forcing the soldiers to reload their magazines by hand in the rain and mud during the battle. The helicopters used to deliver ammunition in the battle were Bell UH-1 (Iroquois). They were completely overloaded and were flying with 50-meter visibility at tree top level – suicide mission. And, yes, Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) didn’t permit flying in unsafe conditions and the senior RAAF officer at first refused. What didn’t come out in the film was American assistance was then requested and granted so the RAAF officer felt he had no alternative and granted permission. Prior to this, Pilots Bob Grandin and Frank Riley did step forward saying, “I am the captain in charge of my aircraft and I am going out” making it clear they were going out whether permission was given or not. There was no Quick Reaction Force (QRF) ready to deploy immediately to assist. A learning curve that cost lives.
