The Last Full Measure

Very inspirational and a true story. One of the great movies and soldier of all time.

It was Napoleon, after all, that started all this medal business. He used the French word “hochet” in a famously ambiguous retort that is traditionally translated as: “It is by such baubles that men are led.” [Note: “hochet” is most commonly used to mean a baby’s rattle… as in, something to distract a small child.]The Medal of Honor is America’s highest “hochet.” Approximately 3500 men (and they have almost all been men) have received this award. That said, they were promiscuously handed out to every soldier in Lincoln’s funeral honor guard as well as every officer who got off the ship when the US invaded Vera Cruz, Mexico in 1914. Thereafter, standards were tightened, well, considerably. (For a background on our nation’s highest military award, I highly recommend a PBS documentary, “Medal of Honor,” directed by Roger Sherman, which I reviewed in early 2019.)“The Last Full Measure,” directed by Tom Robinson, recently released in 2020, concerned the efforts to finally award the Medal of Honor, posthumously, to William H. Pitsenbarger, three decades after his death, in the Battle of Xa Cam My, April 11-12, 1966. It is also about war and remembrance, as well as the treatment of Vietnam War veterans by governmental officials and segments of the American populace.As the movie commenced, I quickly reached the very erroneous conclusion that this would be another utterly phony Vietnam War movie. An American infantry unit is being attacked, taking heavy casualties, and a “dust-off” (medical evacuation helicopter) comes in to extract the wounded. But the person playing Pitsenbarger is wearing the stripes of someone in the Air Force. (Just another movie they can’t even get the uniform right, I thought – wrong!) Turns out Pitsenbarger was in the Air Force, and there were Air Force units that did medical evacuations. I was totally unaware of this – one more aspect of that war I would learn about, half a century later.Thereafter, I appreciated how realistic most aspects of the movie were. Charlie Company, 2/16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division was indeed (partially) overrun, necessitating the “Broken Arrow” call for help. And in a critical 30 seconds, Lt. Billy Takoda, played so well by Samuel Jackson, would make an error on the coordinates, calling artillery fire down on his own men… an error that would haunt him for life. Yet another example of death by “friendly fire.” The character playing Pitsenbarger realized the first casualty extracted by cable (there was no LZ) was the company’s medic. He decided to go down on the cable and help treat the wounded, in lieu of the medic. William Hurt, who also gave an excellent performance played Air Force Sargeant Tully, who would try to get Pitsenbarger to come back up to the helicopter, and likewise was haunted by his failure. John Savage, from a movie I love to hate, “The Deer Hunter,” also plays a role in this one.Sebastian Stan provides an excellent performance of “FNG” Scott Huffman, a hustling young career bureaucrat, making his move for his next higher level position as a civilian working at the Pentagon, and finds this whole MOH business, about something that happened so long ago, and these persistent Vietnam Veterans as an enormous pain in the posterior, derailing his career objectives. The script writer included some nice “touches” that underscored the bigotry against Vietnam Veterans and the utter indifference to the military by the civilian sector. For example, when Huffman learns that one of the veterans of the battle is living in Vietnam, he calls him “Kurtz,” as in that awful movie, “Apocalypse Now.” And Huffman is utterly clueless as to what the patch with the Big Red One stands for… and yes, he works at the Pentagon.Much of the movie is how Huffman “turns,” and how that gaily piece of colored “hochet” might be a fitting tribute to mom and dad. Even I felt good that Huffman also managed to “turn” just one Senator, who finally provided the long overdue recognition. 5-stars

This movie had a lot of great acting. What was interesting was that it was at the beginning of the film that it says it was inspired by a true story, not based on a true story. Those are interesting words, and I was dismayed at the portrayal of the Vietnam veterans. They were all shown to be violent at times. With my father being a Vietnam veteran, I didn't think this was needed or if it is really true on some of those characters. I am speaking of the scenes in the United States after the war, not the scenes of the war itself. I liked the film, but because of this, I will only give it 4 stars.

Kept my eyes on the movie 100%.

The Last Full Measure is a bit of a disappointment. I am a veteran of 23 years in the US Marine Corps and this genre of movie should be among the most enjoyable for me. Unfortunately, the movie is more of a typical Hollywood production rather than a well-made movie. The story is told in a surprisingly soppy character and the production is aimed more at pulling heart-strings than good story telling. And although the cast is star-studded, none of the characters are believable—none of the acting is bad, just none stand out for particularly fine performances.The movie comes across as longer than is necessary. In fact, I found myself fast forwarding during scenes where the outcome was predictable and the scene had little bearing on the story. The movie also has a feel of low-budget which seemed strange seeing there are so many veteran actors involved in the project. Finally, the fighting scenes are not very realistic. One would think that would not be the case since the movie ought to depend on courage in the face horrific danger. To me the movie does not produce the horror of war in the war scenes.Is the movie worth the cost? My opinion is that the movie is not worth the cost. I would not recommend paying $4 for the movie. If free, then yes, worth watching. My recommendation is to read a written account of William Pitsenbarger rather than watching the movie.

We haven't watched it yet. Although we have seen the film, didn't realise this was a German dvd. Just hope it plays in English

Ein Film, der eine Geschichte erzählt. Die Geschichte eines Karrierebeamten im Verteidigungsministerium der USA. Er bekommt einen Auftrag, um ihn vor der Wand zu fahren. Ein alter Fall soll nicht wieder in die Öffentlichkeit kommen, um die Karrierechancen eines Senators nicht zu gefährden - der nichts von diesen Scharmützeln der Politik weiß. Es kommt aber nicht, wie es kommen sollte. Der junge Karrierist begegnet den Menschen, die im Vietnam-Krieg in eine ausweglose Situation manövriert wurden. Menschen, die gerettet wurden, weil ein anderer Mensch sich für sie einsetze. Ein Mensch, der dies nicht musste. Er kannte sie nicht. Er kam aus einer anderen Waffengattung. Und doch hat er sein Leben gegeben, damit andere leben konnten. Der junge Karrierist folgt nicht dem Weg, den er einschlagen wollte. Dem Weg, den er einschlagen sollte. Er identifiziert sich mit den geretteten Männern und ihrem Anliegen, und er treibt es auf die Spitze.Die Kriegsszenen sind Einsprengsel in der Hauptlinie des Films, die mehr als 30 Jahren nach den Kriegsereignissen verläuft. Immer wieder bricht es hervor. In den Erinnerungen der traumatisierten Männer, ihrer Eltern, Frauen, und den Prägungen von Kindern und Enkeln. Aus den Akten, die erneut geöffnet werden. Die vielen Facetten ergeben - Bruchstücke die sie sind - ein vielschichtiges Bild, lassen Fragen offen, die nach den vielen Jahren vielleicht nicht mehr geklärt werden können, und es ist bei all dem erstaunlich, wie es dem Film gelingt, den Krieg nicht zu heroisieren und dennoch die Menschen vielfach positiv zu zeigen, die sich in diesem Umfeld des Wahnsinns bewegen (wollten und mussten). Es ist eine Gratwanderung und sie gelingt. Abgesehen davon ist der Film sehr gut besetzt. Diese Schauspieler können etwas und sie liefern. Er ist dabei auch eine Hommage an die alten Heroen Fonda und Plummer. Für beide war es ihr letzter Film. Sie haben hier mit Grandezza ihren Schlusspunkt gesetzt.Fazit: Beeindruckend.

Great film and actor lm very happy with the seller and product

老人になったベトナム帰還兵や戦死者の遺族の心象を中心に描いている作品。現在と過去のシーンを行ったり来たりするのが煩わしいのが玉に瑕。NVAやVCとの派手なドンパチ期待している人はプラトーンやハンバーガーヒルを観ましょう。

Super Film