The War - Training

Since the only depiction of Vietnam combat in this film was a brief, surreal flashback sequence, we didn't bother with a standard Warriors Inc. full-immersion training sequence. On arrival in the remote Georgia location chosen for filming, we consulted with Director John Avnet on certain military and combat details and then moved on to working with star Kevin Costner and a group of selected extras who would be involved in the combat sequence.

We staged most of the action during rehearsals for camera the day before actual shooting and worked with both American and Vietnamese extras who would play enemies on the day. Our work mostly involved setting up a static firebase type defense for the Americans who were being over-run by a menacing NVA unit. Only the final moments of the NVA assault would appear on film, so we focused on close combat and did a number of drills with local stuntmen to keep them from over-doing their action when they were wounded or killed. As usual, much of the challenge in this area was teaching people how simply and directly - thus more dramatically - men die in combat.