| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | WE WERE SOLDIERS (2002) |
| Director | Randall Wallace |
| Writer | Harold G. Moore, Joseph Lee Galloway, Randall Wallace |
| Lead Actor | Mel Gibson |
| Cast | Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear |
| Genre | Action, Drama, History, War |
| Release Date | March 1, 2002 (United States) |
| Duration | 2h 18m(138 min) |
| Budget | $78.1 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDB Rating | 7.2/10 |
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WE WERE SOLDIERS revisits the Vietnam War with 21st-century combat-movie special effects and a slightly revisionist attitude. The war is still hell, but the soldiers (on both sides) are good guys who fight bravely, make few cynical wisecracks and, occasionally, are even heroes.
This stunning, deeply probing fact-based drama follows Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) as he leads a helicopter borne infantry regiment on the first major American attack mission in 1965. With significant U.S. air support, the fierce fighting is mostly hand to hand with light weapons and artillery. The result is heavy casualties on both sides but no clear winner a symbolic prologue to the decade of attrition yet to come.
The traditional war movie narrative focuses on the officers as the troops endure their tough, special stateside training, with some attention to individuals, their spouses and families. After the last dance with wives and sweethearts and a brooding departure sequence, the action moves swiftly to combat, with cutbacks to what’s happening at home.
Gibson’s Hal Moore (on whose memoirs the film is based) is a devout Catholic veteran and family man (five kids) with a democratic leadership style (first to land, last to leave). He knows men will die. When they do, he cries and prays for them.
A journalist (Barry Pepper) who goes along to get the story close up finds more horror than he bargained for. Back at home base, the wives begin to get Defense Department telegrams, and Moore’s wife (Madeleine Stowe) takes on the difficult but compassionate task of delivering them herself.
Director writer producer Randall Wallace, who scripted Braveheart for Gibson but got little oomph into his screenplay for Pearl Harbor, offers plenty of emotional moments. The bitterness of the great wave of Vietnam movies (The Deer Hunter, Platoon, etc.) is missing, but there is no glory either.
The random horror and mayhem reflect the in your face realism of Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. (The specialty here is napalm and what it does.) This time there is no message except perhaps that soldiers have a grim job (not much improved since the days of Braveheart) and deserve gratitude and respect. Sincere but very sad, a cut above average, genre violence and realism, for mature audiences.
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