Customer Reviews

We Were Soldiers-Dvd

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

One of the best Vietnam war movies made, "We Were Soldiers" features some of the most realistic combat scenes conveying the "fog of battle" and horror of combat. The story development may seem slow at first, but allows some appreciation of the characters involved and the context of the battle. The action is fast paced, showing the battle from both the North Vietnamese and American points of view, but is broken by the juxtaposition of poignant events on the home front and political machinations in the rear areas.

Mel Gibson is surprisingly exceptional as the gung-ho Colonel Hal Moore, Sam Elliot seems born to the role of the salty Sergeant Major Basil Plumley, and the entire supporting cast does a wonderful job. The cinematography and special effects go a long way towards recreating the confusing swirl of a battle with ill-defined lines.

The film is perhaps flawed only by its attempts to cover too many social and political issues in the one film; forgivable in the context of creating a story intended as a microcosm of the entire Vietnam War. This does however, lead to short scenes seemingly out of step with the rest of the film. Additionally, there are some unrealistic liberties (Killed in Action telegrams arriving home during the first night of battle), but it is simply artistic license required to make the story work. If you're willing to remember a film has limited time to tell its tale, these flashes into the social, political and personal issues go a long way in back-filling the context of the story and the conflicting emotions and views of the characters.

In the end, this is a movie of war and the people involved, and it is a very good one. It's a decent translation of the book to film, and the best portrayal of the 1st Air Cav's action at Ia Drang (the only battle of the Vietnam War in which sizable US Army and NV Army forces faced each other).

You'll like this movie if:
You liked "Saving Private Ryan" and "Black Hawk Down", or Mel Gibson in "The Patriot."

You'll dislike this movie if:
You're expecting a strict antiwar piece, a reprise of Mel Gibson in "Gallipoli" or the complicated subplots and storyline of "The Deer Hunter".

For a more detailed and realistic look at the battle, read Hal Moore's and Joe Galloway's book by the same title: We Were Soldiers Once...and Young: Ia Drang - the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam

What I like about this movie is how both sides are depicted in this vicious engagement during the Vietnam War. You get a genuine feeling of conviction for the ideals being fought for by both opposing officers in command. The fighting is fierce and the North Vietnamese are going to hold their ground at all costs. The Americans will try and take the ground until ordered otherwise. This film examines the nature of war through the eyes of both men in charge on the field of battle. Barry Pepper in a very colorful role represents every man's instinct to survive.

WE WERE SOLDIERS is based on the memoirs of then-Lt. Col. Hal Moore Jr. His WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG is co-authored by Joe Galloway, played in this film adaptation by Barry Pepper.

In "We Were Soldiers," director Randall Wallace presents a careful recreation of the initial phase of the battle of La Drang, the first major clash in Vietnam between American troops and those of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). It's the harrowing story of a vastly outnumbered and green 7th Cavalry unit choppered into the field on what quickly becomes a suicide mission.

They engage an enemy with 20 years fighting experience that also has the geographical advantage of high ground entrenchment. Reporter/fotog Joe Galloway choppers in just before the worst fighting begins and ends up battling for his life.

On 11/15/65, Col. Moore (Gibson) radios a "Broken Arrow" distress call when his troops are being overwhelmed by sheer numbers and it looks like they'll all get slaughtered just as French forces were a decade earlier. The American response is immediate and decisive. Machine gun fire from helicopter warships in co-ordination with accurate artillery barrages turn the tide of battle and decimate the NVA.


This most graphic of all 'Nam films has a solid hour of horrendous battles that intercut occasionally with scenes of the pressures wives back home must cope with. "We Were Soldiers" is brilliant, bloody, tragic and definitely NOT for the squeamish!


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(7.0) We Were Soldiers (USA/Germany-2002) - Mel Gibson/Madeleine Stowe/Greg Kinnear/Sam Elliott/Chris Klein/Keri Russell/Barry Pepper/Duong Don/Dylan Walsh

As a Viet Nam veteran I found this movie very realistic and just a bit unnerving. My time there was more towards the end of the War when we had weapons even more deadly to man than were available at the time of the event in this movie. I found the character of the Vietnamese units commanding officer very realistic. Not all were savage and uncaring about the men and in some cases women under their command though some were. The story presented in the movie did happen and the movie portrays what happened very accurately.

I ordered for my brother-in-law for Christmas present and just wanted to add to his collection of movies and this is the first time I got a unusable movie. Kept stopping all through the movie.

A great movie of the Viet Nam war. Worth seeing, worth buying. It was money, and time, well spent. Everyone did a great job. Thanks for the fast service.

Being a Vietnam vet and a Marine I know a little about combat and the realities of same. This movie "brings it" with both story line, casting, portrayals, etc. Mel Gibson is excellent, Madeleine Stowe was great, and Sam Elliott was outstanding. I personally felt Greg Kinnear was best supporting. The movie, while intense told a story that needed to put out there, much like "Full Metal Jacket."
Randall Wallace did a great job on the screen play script. Harold G. Moore, who wrote the book "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young" as Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore .... well, there isn't much more that CAN be said.

The movie is an awesome movie, and it was shipped in a timely manner and everything was intact.

Mel Gibson constructs fantasy from history by neglect rather than active propaganda. This story of a turning point in the Vietnam experience for America is good for what it does. However, Mr. Gibson failed in that he ended the tale too soon, and gave it a happier ending than the circumstances of Ia Drang would demand of a historian. He was honest to the character he portrays. the shortcoming is that there is more, and to be honest the action that followed that of "LZ XRay" must also be told. That done, the viewer could see the strength of the American spirit and better understand the weaknesses that made this war different. It is worth seeing. It is also worth an effort to examine the full story from other sources in order to understand that battle fully. I commend Mr. Gibson for a willingness to attempt this kind of material at this time in our history, lest we be forgotten.

Heroism and camaraderie seem to go hand in hand in the better war films. Cy Endfield's ZULU and Andrew V. McLaglen's THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE come to mind. Somewhere, WE WERE SOLDIERS fits in that category and stature of film.

Mel Gibson's WE WERE SOLDIERS is a provocative war film. It works effectively as an action war film but that is a rather simplistic assessment. What makes this film effective is the camaraderie that flourishes and intensifies amongst the American soldiers, their valor, heroism and Mel Gibson's sincere performance as the dedicated Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore who is the first man on and last man off the field of battle. The film is both intense and emotional and we also get to see their families stateside adding another perspective to this military engagement. Perhaps the film's greatest strength is its intimacy of putting the viewer in the center of this frenetic encounter where staying alive for the good of the whole involved reflex-like action tinged with a great deal of energy and emotion.

Barry Pepper as journalist Joe Galloway and Duong Don as Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Huu An give standout performances. Dean Semlerand's cinematography and Kevin Kavanaugh's Art Direction were essential to the look and overall effectiveness of this film.