We Were Soldiers - Movie Review Essay Sample

We Were Soldiers is an American movie that portrays the Battle of la Drang that took place in 1965, and Gibson and Wallace directed it. Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore is set to undertake the first battle in Vietnam, and he commands the first Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment. He is a great leader and manages to achieve a lot despite his battalion being outnumbered, he refuses to show any weaknesses despite the massive attacks by the enemy, and he finally wins when the Vietnamese troops are forced to leave their main base. Moore portrays various supervisory techniques when leading the battalion one being leading the soldiers. Even before they reach the battlefield, he portrays that he can follow the instructions he was passing to his Regiment and this made him earn loyalty and respect (Schmidt & Wallace, 2002). A party is held just a day before they leave and he makes a speech where he states that even though he cannot promise to bring back all the soldiers alive, he will be the first to step his foot in the enemies land and the last to step off it. He adds that he will not leave any member of his Regiment dead or alive in the battlefield and this can be depicted in the movie that he stayed true to his word for none of the contingent was left in Vietnam while he was the last one to leave the war zone. At the time of war, Moore portrays his leadership's skills by refusing to surrender despite being in some many difficulties and acts of heroism.

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Another supervisory technique portrayed by Moore is that of treating everyone with dignity and respect. In his speech, he states that every member of his unit is crucial and equally important to the mission at hand irrespective of their origin or race. He confirms that in the United States, discrimination is prevalent, but in his unit, that will not exist. They are all going for the same course which is to win the war, and the move led him to build self-respect, confidence, and togetherness factors that went a long way in ensuring that the battle was won despite their limited number.

The third technique employed by Moore is that of his commitment towards achieving success at all cost. He has a mission to accomplish, and he worked hard towards seeing that it is achieved, an issue that earns him great respect from his soldiers who go to this war knowing that victory is theirs all and they cannot let their leader down. When he is informed that they have been outnumbered by the enemies, he is not bothered and disregards the advice givens that they should stay away from the mountains. Though disregarding the issue can be said to be wrong, he charges to the valley with his soldiers and gives a spirited fight with the help of the second battalion, and he finally wins the war.

The techniques of treating everyone with respect and leading by example were highly effective. He gets to earn the respect of the Regiment members due to the process of leading from the front on the issues that he highlighted, and it is a vital component for the team's operational effectiveness. Being the first to step into the battlefield is an indication that he is ready to take the first bullet for the team and that he is not afraid to fight an issue that raises the soldiers' confidence. Moore manages to build trust, pride and the ability to remain together as a unit due to his ability to treat every soldier with dignity and respect. Therefore, the soldiers go out in the field knowing well that they are working as a family and everyone is ready to cover the other to ensure they win the war with few number of casualties if there will be any. The team mentality that was developed by Moore leads them to victory an indication that it is a crucial trait to poses as a leader.

The third technique that involved unrelenting commitment was not that effective, and it can be argued that the true qualities of a great leader are known when the chances of surviving are low, and the decisions they make in such instances are the ones that determine their true leadership qualities. Moore's passion for results made him lead his team to a risk situation that led to many lives getting lost. Finding themselves in a situation where they are outnumbered by the enemy is not a good move that was made by Moore, and it is only through leading by example and respecting each other that the team managed to keep themselves from the impending danger.

In one of the scenes, Moore receives the message that he should not move towards the mountains considering that the soldiers would easily get lost and the intelligence informs him that the enemy is likely to outnumber him and it is, therefore, safe to stay away from the region. He ignores the pleas of the intelligence group and leads the unit towards the valley without making the consideration that the number of soldiers that he is leading is small. The unit is placed in a risky situation, and they fight for their lives and were it not for their togetherness and the spirited fight they took to their enemies, they would all have died. As a leader, i would have hindered to the advice given by the intelligence unit and waited for reinforcement before attacking the enemy. It can be noted that the second battalion came to their rescue an indication that the war would have been made easier if Moore had waited for reinforcement. It is not logical to lead a team to fight an enemy who holds massive manpower; waiting for the second battalion to arrive before proceeding with the attack would have been a better decision for Moore to make.

A stressful environment may affect the way the supervisory techniques are being applied considering that the process of decision making is likely to be affected. Faster resolution needs to be made, and the actions taken should bear positive results. There can be cases of increased energy levels in the body being released and the desire to have the job done in the shortest time possible. It is possible to note negative issues that are not evident during the times or low-stress levels arising at a time of high-stress environment (Roy, Doty, Xue & Pham, 2017). The issue can arise when the matter at hand exceeds the thinking capability of the supervisor and is unable to pass a good resolution. The confidence levels may reduce, and it is likely to be followed by low rates of performance and increased levels of stress.

Leading by example is the trait that i can relate with since I believe that when am managing a group of people, one of the best and easiest way to communicate to them is showing what they need to do. Passing instructions through word of mouth may sometimes prove to be ineffective since people understand certain statements differently. Therefore, the best way that one can ensure that everyone in a unit is doing the same way is showing them what needs to be done by doing it.

The managers should be ready to tackle any stressful situation that may arise. There are instances that the textbook techniques fail to work considering that different situations require different solutions and they may thus not work in all the cases (Raineri & Paille, 2016). In high school inter-county games, the captain of my school team abandoned the team when he managed to know that they were to be fined by the school board for failing to follow the coach's instructions. The coach had been intimidating the players and forcing them to play in a manner that was causing injuries to the players, and they decided to sabotage him. However, the captain failed to stand with the rest of the players to ensure that their safety was observed.

References

Raineri, N., & Paille, P. (2016). Linking corporate policy and supervisory support with environmental citizenship behaviors: The role of employee environmental beliefs and commitment. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(1), 129-148.

Roy, S., Doty, K., Xue, M., & Pham, K. (2017, August). A dynamical-network model with hierarchical controls for cognitive military satellite communications. In Control Technology and Applications (CCTA), 2017 IEEE Conference on (pp. 1805-1810). IEEE.

Schmidt, A. (Producer), & Wallace, R. (Director). (2002). We Were Soldiers, You Tube. United States.