I am an American Vietnam veteran (1st Air Cavalry, 1967-68), and was aware of the Australian involvement in the Vietnam conflict, but this was the first movie I knew of that related their experience. The movie is a well made, proper documentary, relating the events of the battle by the people who lived it. The story was riveting, not for its special effects, big name stars, or CGI, but due to the stories of the men who were there, the simple, factual script, and the tone established by narrator Sam Worthington, who told the story accurately, and in gripping detail. In its own way, the Battle of Long Tam parallels the American Battle of the Chu Pong Massif/LZ Xray a little less than an year earlier, in that a relatively small force engages what turns out to be an NVA battalion size force. While the Hollywood production of that battle (We Were Soldiers Once) was certainly exciting and star studded(Mel Gibson as Col.Hal Moore) and its special effects captured the horror of battle, the people who fought that conflict tended to get lost in the production values. In The Battle of Long Tam, the stories of the men shone like stars in the night.

Im surprised this documentary does not have any comments, It was put together extremely well and used some great cinematic techniques. This is how a documentary should be made, particularly Australian doco's. the production team kept the story humble, without the need to introduce over the top re-enactments focused more on the actors/extras ability rather than the story. 'Battle of Long Tan' deserves a shedload of credit and could only be produced by a team of people that had genuine enthusiasm getting this relatively little known story into the face of the public eye(unfortunate it will probably only be seen by the Aus/NZ public). Im sure this will be an Australia day TV fixture.