A story of bravery told well
Even by the horrific standards of the war in Vietnam, the Battle of Xa Cam My is remembered as being particularly bad.
Over April 11 and 12 of 1966, a US army company of 134 men were pinned down and shot to pieces by a Vietnamese force who had been waiting in ambush for them.
The intended support troops, who were themselves supposed to ambush the Vietnamese, became bogged down in thick jungle and uncertain map-reading. Carnage on both sides unfolded.
Into this hell came William H ‘‘Pits’’ Pitsenbarger, an air force rescueman, ready to winch down into the fire zone to aid the wounded and get as many into a helicopter to safety as he could.
Pits’ actions that day became the stuff of legend, but the fact he was an air force man who had inserted himself into an army operation made the path to the medal he deserved a difficult one.
Pits was awarded the Air Force Cross. But the campaign to upgrade him to a full Medal of Honour – the United States’ highest military honour – would take 32 more years.
The Last Full Measure – the title derives from a line in the Gettysburg Address given by Abraham Lincoln – is director Todd Robinson’s attempt at recreating the events of these days – and also at outlining the campaign and the individuals who fought to see Pitsenbarger posthumously awarded the medal they were adamant he deserved.
Oddly, it is in the combat recreations, which have been praised for their accuracy, that The Last Full Measure falters.
But in the present day political and bureaucratic battles, the film really starts to pay its rent.
Helping enormously, even when the dialogue descends into postVietnam cliche and the office politics seem to be going nowhere fast, is a cast of screen legends who have been collectively putting wind under the wings of average scripts for decades.
With Christopher Plummer, Diane Ladd, William Hurt, Ed Harris, Samuel L Jackson, and Peter Fonda (in his last role), all on board as Pits’ family and comrades, Robinson has a deep bench of senior players to draw on.
Sebastian Stan (The Winter Soldier) is the investigator who compiles the case, while Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) as Pitsenbarger in flashback.
The film is a solid, well-made and occasionally very moving work. It is too easy to dismiss any movie of this type as ‘‘glorifying war’’, but I reckon Robinson and his cast have done something far better here. Although the story is brutal and often bloody, they have only glorified the bravery, dignity and honesty within it. And of that, we should never hear enough.