We Were Soldiers Review
by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)March 4th, 2002
"We Were Soldiers"
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson ordered an increase in America's commitment to stem the spread of Communism in Vietnam. Lt. Colonel Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) is given command of the 1st of the 7th and he and his men are the first regular army types to be sent to fight the Commies. Their first test, and it is a doozie, is to confront a North Vietnamese force of unknown strength in the aptly named Valley of the Shadow of Death in the true-life story, "We Were Soldiers."
The script, by helmer Randall Wallace, is by the numbers and wooden as it sets up the story with the arrival of Lt. Col. Moore at Fort Benning. He is selected to lead the elite First Battalion of the Seventh Cavalry - the same unit commanded by George Armstrong Custer at the Little Big Horn massacre over a century ago - and bring into being a new form of mobile warfare with the helicopter replacing the horse as the conveyance to battle. We go through the tough training Moore puts his men through. We see the family life of a soldier depicted by the colonel's loyal, loving wife. Our guts are wrenched when the army sends a Yellow Cab to deliver the telegrams that begin with the fateful "We regret to inform you?". But, for all of that, the screenplay is manipulative malarkey at times.
Wallace's screenplay, based on the book We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, attempts to cover too much ground, even with a run time approaching the 2½ hour mark. Besides the vicious Battle of Ia Drang as seen through the eyes of Moore and his men, there is the depiction of the pressures upon those left behind at home, plus an attempt (mishandled) to show the battle from the viewpoint of the North Vietnamese general (Don Duong) and his men. We see one of the NVA soldiers, right before going into battle, writing in his diary and gazing, longingly, upon a photo of his wife - she, too, so very far away. It's a politically correct attempt to put a human face on what has been considered, until recently, an enemy/monster. It is also manipulation of the coarsest kind.
There are inconsistencies or things questionable in the film that also gives me pause. Did the US Army really use the Yellow Cab Company and its drivers to deliver the regrets telegrams to the wives of the dead soldiers? If so, it gives the term "military intelligence" new meaning! In another sequence, Moore is given the abovementioned North Vietnamese soldier's diary after the battle. Later, we see the dead man's wife reading said diary? Huh? How the heck did Moore get this personal item back into her hands? The last I knew, at the time, the US Postal Service did not make deliveries to Hanoi. The US Air Force did, for sure, but not the US Mail. Other niggling things about the script bug me and detracted from the flow of the based-on-events story.
The characters in the film are uniformly brave and honorable and peppered with cliché. Gibson portrays the commander who prizes the lives of his men above all else except the defeat of the enemy. Sam Elliott plays the top enlisted man and Moore's right hand man, Sgt. Major Basil Plumley, a gruff, craggy, hard-bitten old soldier who knows his way around a battlefield. Chris Klein, as rookie Lieutenant Jack Geoghegan, is the bright, naïve platoon leader that has the lives of his men foremost in his mind. Madeleine Stowe is the stoic Julie Moore, wife of the colonel and de facto leader of the wives left at home thousands of miles away from their men. Greg Kinnear, as chopper commander Major Bruce Crandall, is the savvy lead pilot who takes Moore's men into the Valley of Death and, like an angel, hovers above the troops to inflict hurt on the enemy and save the lives of the wounded GIs. Barry Pepper, as photojournalist Joe Galloway, is the chronicler of the battle who is there to help the folks at home understand the war better. All are played as characters and symbols, rather than people, and none stands out, not even marvelous Mel.
Techs are first-class, especially the battle sequences. "Saving Private Ryan" raised the bar for the reality of battlefield violence and this you-are-there trend has carried forward to such films as "Black Hawk Down" and "We Were Soldiers." Attention to the period detail is a major plus in this latest war drama, from the authentic uniforms and weapons of both American and North Vietnamese troops to the fiery napalm raids on the North Vietnamese by propeller-driven Skyraiders and attacks by heavily armed Huey helicopters. I could find nary a false move in the staging and execution of this bit of American history.
Wallace penned the screenplay for Gibson's Oscar winning "Braveheart" and got the nod to direct this ambitious modern, true-life war story. I think it is too daunting a task for the sophomore helmer (he previously directed the 1998 film "The Man In the Iron Mask," not a memorable flick) and there is a clunkiness to the film's flow. For instance, during the heat of battle, with men's lives hanging in the balance, the action cuts away to a close-up of Julie Moore's vacuum cleaner. What the heck is that about? It makes me wonder what the film would have been like in the hands of a more seasoned director. But, then again, I have beaucoup problems with the screenplay, too.
I'm a big fan of war movies and I had high hopes going in to "We Were Soldiers" but they were not met. It's not that the film is bad, it's just not really good. I give it a B.
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