We are proud to announce that the showing of Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor will be coming to Idaho Falls on April 6, 2017.
Last year, the Department of Defense selected Idaho Falls as a partner city with 7,000 other communities in the United States to help honor the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. Idaho Falls will host a series of six events over the next three years. Two commemorative events were held in 2016.
The showing of Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor is the first of two events scheduled for 2017 in which Idaho Falls and the Department of Defense will honor those who served in Vietnam as well as all military veterans.
Fresh and immediate, the film Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor reveals Bravo Company’s intensely personal story of 77 days under siege at Khe Sanh during the Vietnam War.
From the day he escaped it, Ken Rodgers knew he would recount the story of the legendary 77-day Siege of Khe Sanh. In early 1968, Ken and his brother Marines endured the longest siege in modern history. Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor tells their story.
The film will be shown at the Colonial Theater, in downtown Idaho Falls, on April 6, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale at the Idaho Falls Arts Council, $10 for adults and $5 for students under 18. Proceeds will go to funding military veteran assistance programs in eastern Idaho.
A panel of military veterans who served in combat in Vietnam will be available for Q&A following the showing. Idaho Falls Councilman Ed Marohn, who served in combat with the 101st Airborne Division, as well as Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper will MC the event.
Film producers Ken and Betty Rodgers will be at the showing to introduce the film, answer questions and sign DVDs.
The movie that Rodgers wrote, produced and directed, with his wife Betty Rodgers, is a profound rendering of 15 Bravo Company interviews, historic footage and photographs, music and actual recordings made during the siege.
We learn how these boys-turned-men withstood constant bombardment from the enemy and fearsome living conditions far from home in order to defend the combat base while battling their own fear and suffering unspeakable loss. We learn how Khe Sanh changed their lives forever and what it means to them today, forty-nine years later. Bravo! is a testimony to the human spirit.
Winner of Best Documentary Feature at the 2015 GI Film Festival San Diego, and the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Norman Hatch Award 2016, Bravo! is edited by fellow Vietnam Veteran and award-winning veteran of the film industry, John Nutt. The final sound mix was completed at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, by Academy Award-winning re-mixer Mark Berger.
"Thus, it’s a privilege and an honor to come across a work as disciplined and rigorous as Ken and Betty Rodgers’ Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor…This is a grunt film that looks at history from over the lip of the trench. To watch it is to think: Where did we get such men?” says Stephen Hunter, former longtime film critic for The Washington Post.
The filmmakers are currently seeking a national presence for Bravo!.
Ken and Betty Rodgers are available for interview and private screenings. For more information call (208) 340-8324 or visit www.bravotheproject.com or www.Facebook.com/bravotheproject
###