No orchids were harmed.....MY LAI FOUR-the movie

[walingwaling]

hi forum,

here is the reason why i was absent for 5 weeks, coz we were shooting the movie "MY LAI FOUR",
and as i said, no orchids were harmed or animals, i made sure of that, i actually saved 2 snakes.

this film is about the massacre in march 1968 in a small village in vietnam called "My Lai" and lasted originally 4 hours, hence the title. its a true story and maybe some of you heard about it. it was big news way back then. in 1970 the author Seymour M Hersh won the pulitzer prize for his book about this horrible event.
oliver stone wanted to shoot this film at some point, but didnt and the producer gianni palucci bought the rights and we were pretty exact on the facts of the book, only a few characters were invented like mine ("badessa").

our location was in los banos, laguna in the phillippines, which was a perfect setting and the art director did a fantastic job, including building a whole identical village plus hellicopter etc.
we all worked hard under the sun and pretty much same condition as in real army life, except pasta for lunch, hehe.
but of course we had a lot of fun and grew together over the weeks, luckily only a few wounds were brought home as souvenirs.

to keep it short, the movie should come out in LA by october, then europe etc.
i just wanna share some moments here and i hope you all enjoy the shots, i really missed the action and thrill!

[walingwaling]

my lai four

[walingwaling]

my lai four

[walingwaling]

my lai four

[bench72]

Wow, what an exciting thing to be doing... and the scenery looks amazing!

so, ron, were u one of the good guys?

[walingwaling]

my lai four

[eaglssong]

Wow.. what a reminder of a very shameful event in our history. It was a very good lesson that while so many of our military are true heroes, there are always a few who are ......... well, we'll just let My Lai Four tell the story.

I know that there are many here who are too young to remember. Some of us though are old enough, and we wish we could forget.

Okay... enough from me. I really don't want to start a huge political battle. It was just a very bad/sad time for both our countries, no matter whose side you were on.

For me, I'd rather just share our love of orchids.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Ron, these are great shots! Thanks for sharing your work with us! I look forward to the film!!

Cheers,
BD

[zainal abidin]

Ron, I love those photos , it remind me the tragedy in Sandakan Sabah where many arm forces from Australia passed away killed by Japanese when I observed documentary few month backed.Scary...eeeeeee

[Cjcorner]

That was amazing...I worked with the "moulage" team in the Air Force (getting people to look like they were injured for training exercises). Those wounds look great..if you can say wounds look good. lol I've also been married to a Vietnam Vet (a chopper doc), who had three members of his family in 'Nam. I've seen the movies they brought home and your set up looked 100% authentic. I will have to watch for this one and get a copy for my Marine Corp step-dad.
Thanks for the heads up! It's very sad what some of our men did over there and I'm glad we have the dignity to admit our mistakes. That is how we keep these things from happening in future wars.
Connie