Simply Perfect

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

After having such an interest in history through school, and wars throughout my teenage years , and my Grandfather serving in WW2, i've always loved a Great War movie, and this one doesn't disappoint. We were soldiers covers the first , and one of the biggest battles of the entire Vietnam War. It captures the hearts and minds of the viewer, and really gives the audience a sense of what war/jungle fighting would really be like. It shows not just the war, but the struggle of the families at home in the States, who after all , were just as emotionally involved. It shows patriotism, love, loyalty, courage and spirit through a lot of the main characters, and the battle scenes are truly terrific. Saving Private Ryan and this movie are the best war movies to date, in my opinion anyway.Even if war movies aren't your thing, at least watch We Were Soldiers for some learning of both history , and what it takes to be a soldier in combat.

This film shows us the first great battle that Americans suffered during the Vietnam War. Its difficult for me to assess how fair the film is in the picture of the battle, which I don't know very well, but I can say that I have not seen many problems with historical rigor. The film emphasizes the deficient American preparation for that type of war and the way that specific location was underestimated. It's a war movie and it has, of course, a lot of action but, despite some appeals to patriotism, it's not fanatical about it as some other films are ("Black Hawk Down", for example). This moderation was something I appreciated, as well as the focus on the human drama of the soldiers and how they had to solve that difficult situation. The result is a war film that does not stray from the feelings, embracing its humanity even though it may displease those who went to the theater expecting to see another "Rambo". Mel Gibson is the main actor and fills his character with courage, heroism, faith and dignity. He is a good actor and is on a family record, not being the first war film in which he participates. The rest of the cast doesn't stand out much but fulfills our expectations and does what it has to do. The film uses sound and special effects very well, realistically portraying the soldiers' action on the ground. The scenarios contribute to this realism and have been very well reproduced.

The story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War and the soldiers on both sides that fought it. We Were Soldiers is another great war film starring mel Gibson with a lot of violence, courage and heroism about true heroes that were sacrificed for their country and every time i see that scene with his wife and that taxi driver who comes and gives the letters that say who died and her reaction was pretty spot on and he says i just do my job and it was pretty touching but where the movie does grab the touching part and it gives you the emotion is definitely the end when you see all those names from the people that were killed and it's so heart breaking a really good film really good.

Released in 2002, "We Were Soldiers" stars Mel Gibson as Col. Hal Moore who leads the first major battle between Americans and the North Vietnamese Army in The Battle of Ia Drang Valley over four days in mid-November, 1965. Sam Elliott costars as the seasoned NCO and Barry Pepper as a bold photographer while Madeleine Stowe appears as the Colonel's wife. Greg Kinnear is also on hand as a helicopter pilot while Keri Russell plays a soldier's wife.The movie is based on the book "We Were Soldiers Once… and Young" by Col. Moore and the aforementioned photographer, Joe Galloway. As such, "We Were Soldiers" is a straight-forward realistic depiction of the battle and the first film depiction where Moore claimed "Hollywood finally got it right." This reminds me of something someone I know who fought in Nam said: All the other films about the war from the late 70s to late 80s didn't strike him as the way it really was, but after seeing "We Were Soldiers" he said, "That's the way it was." Be that as it may, it doesn't make it as good as 1986' "Platoon" or 1979's "Apocalypse Now." The former is so great because the platoon in the story is a microcosm of many platoons and their experiences throughout the war, which might come across as "too much" because the filmmakers only have about 2 hours to tell the story and they have to jam a whole year of experiences into that time frame. Incredibly, "Platoon" fleshes-out no less than a dozen memorable characters with its grunt's-eye view of the conflict while telling a compelling story. By contrast, "We Were Soldiers" only presents about four memorable characters during the battle and, while it's a solid war flick, it simply isn't as compelling.As for "Apocalypse Now," it's useless to compare the two because (1.) the original version of "Apocalypse Now" (as opposed to the horribly flawed "Redux") is a downright cinematic masterpiece; (2.) it's way more than just a war movie; and (3.) its theme is deeper than the conventional and patriotic portrayal of the realistic "We Were Soldiers." If you're not familiar with the theme of "Apocalypse Now," it's basically this: Capt. Willard (Sheen) comes face-to-face with two Colonels during his mission up the river to assassinate the rogue Col. Kurtz. Both of the colonel's names start with 'K,' which is no accident. Col. Kilgore (Duvall) is a romantic who embraces war as a lifestyle and even feeds off it. The fact that he's a romantic can be observed in the air-raid on the village where he literally plays Wagner as a prologue. He feeds off the war to the extent that he "loves the smell of napalm in the morning." War is just another day to him so why not go surfing? Since he lives off of the war there's no way it can kill him or even give him a scratch. Kilgore naturally has the support of the top brass because he's part of the system and plays the game of war. Col. Kurtz (Brando), by contrast, sees through this hypocrisy. He realizes that being in a state of war is humanity gone mad. It's horror itself and therefore must be ended through the quickest means possible at whatever cost. He refuses to play the game of war as he expertly takes out double agents, etc. Of course the brass can't have this so they put out a hit on Kurtz via Willard."We Were Soldiers" instead opts for a simple portrayal of the first major battle of the infamous war and the bravery & horror thereof. The story essentially proposes the question: What would happen if you drop 400 American soldiers into a valley crawling with 4000 soldiers of the NVA? The fighting is presented realistically, brutally and relatively coherently given the chaos of the intense conflict. Col. Moore truly loves his men and Gibson carries the movie with the peripheral help of Elliot and Barry Pepper. On top of this, the movie gives quite a bit of time to North Vietnamese side of the story, which enhances the story.Some people have rolled their eyes at the Morro Bay locations of central coastal, California, but if you look at Galloway's real-life pics of the battle they chose a great stand-in for the grassy valley. I guess people don't realize that Vietnam isn't all conventionally tropical jungle.The film runs a little overlong at 2 hours and 18 minutes and was shot in Morro Bay, Pasadena and Fort Hunter Liggett, California; as well as Fort Benning and Columbus, Georgia.GRADE: B- (6.5/10 Stars)