We Were Soldiers (2002)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

First of all, there is no denying that this is an important story that should be told. The first conflict in the Vietnam debacle is modern history at its most intense. That being said...The movie is a menagerie of complete awful. It fails on every level of filmmaking. The dialogue is farmed from the worst of John Wayne's WWII clichés. (Every word from Sam Elliot's mouth.) The directing is the worst example of film student pushiness. (The Barry Pepper photo montage.) The acting is so over the top that Al Pacino would be jealous. (Mel Gibson hamming it up in the role of Lt. Col. Hal Moore.) Even the FX are just amateur versions of Michael Bay movies. However, Greg Kinnear shines as Maj. Bruce 'Snake' Crandall, the helicopter pilot in charge of coordinating flights in and out of the "hot zone". His hubris and humanity make up for more than a few of the more exploitative and under-developed characters. There is more good and bad here. Needless flashbacks to home life. A bizarre tour inside the mind of the VC's Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu An. Tantalizing moments of sheer horror in the midst of war. Hero stories.In the end, I wanted this movie to be good. I wanted this important story to be told well but due to the incompetent directing and writing of Randall Wallace I was left feeling unsatisfied and cheated. If you want to see a remake of anything, it should probably be this movie.

After watching the film , I felt completely speechless. With all the massacre scenes in the film, I thought the US is the one who won the war, not the one who left its partner, South Vietnam, behind in desperation. My question is: how could it be so easy for American troops to kill VCs in the film? If it really were like the way the movie depicted, the US would haven't needed Search&Destroy operations for years. I still remember in the series "Vietnam in HD", real American vets usually said "NVA troops are smart as hell" and I don't think they would agree with this film. We were soldiers is nothing but a slap to ones who actually served in Vietnam.In my opinion, if you want to watch a real film about Vietnam War, Platoon and Apocalypse Now are definitely great options.

SPOILERS BELOW!!! I cannot believe this movie is rated as high as it is.You will be able to predict every bit of this re-tread war movie - nothing is original. Go ahead and skip the first 40 minutes because I can summarize it in a few sentences: Mel Gibson can't act, nor can he pull off a southern accent. Mel's character has a doting wife and five children and he prays really hard so god can let him kill bad guys and military life is tough on the whole family. And there are other wives, too. One is a minority and one is retarded.Then Mel prays with his soldiers like a kid prays to Santa. Then they go to a golf course in Northern California and pretend they are in Viet Nam. The worst set/location I've ever seen in a war movie. They didn't even try - unless you think Viet Nam is mostly 6-inch tall grass and a few 15-foot birch trees planted by a landscaper a week before.The filmmakers were obviously aware that the golf course didn't look very real, which really blew the cinematography. They had to frame every shot so that it didn't reach beyond 20 feet and reveal the potted trees they drag around as the "jungle." Along the way, they throw in every single war movie cliché you could ever imagine and a person who has never seen the movie will probably be able guess most of the lines before they are said.This is trash.