'We Were Soldiers' movie review

(C) 2002 Paramount Pictures

“We Were Soldiers” (2002)

Directed by Randall Wallace

Written by Randall Wallace, based on the book We Were Soldiers Once...And Young, by Hal Moore and Joseph L. Galloway

Starring: Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe,  Sam Elliott, Greg Kinnear, Chris Klein, Keri Russell, Barry Pepper

Joe Galloway: [narrating] We who have seen war, will never stop seeing it. In the silence of the night, we will always hear the screams. So this is our story, for we were soldiers once, and young.

“We Were Soldiers,” writer-director Randall Wallace's 2002 feature film about the three-day Battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam, is one of the best movies about America's "lost crusade" in Southeast Asia.

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Based on Lt. Gen. Harold B. Moore and Joseph Galloway's non-fiction book We Were Soldiers Once....and Young, Wallace's film version is a realistic and respectful account of the first major battle between U.S. and North Vietnamese forces in November of 1965.

[the Viet Minh look down on wounded French soldiers]Viet Minh Sergeant: [in Vietnamese; subtitled] Do we take prisoners?

Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu An: [in Vietnamese] No. Kill all they send... and they will stop coming.

Starring Mel Gibson as Lt. Col. Hal Moore, We Were Soldiers begins with the destruction of France's Mobile Group 100 by the Viet Minj in 1954, the year that Diem Bien Phu fell and French involvement in Vietnam ended, paving the way for America's ill-fated intervention. This opening scene is graphically violent, similar to those seen in “Saving Private Ryan.” But the prologue drives home its point - to show the determination of the Vietnamese to drive off any outside force, even if it means being ruthless.

Maj. General Henry Kinnard: The White House anticipates a buildup and wants a victory over cavemen in black pajamas.

General in Hallway: We wouldn't be there if they hadn't already beaten the French Army.Maj.

General Henry Kinnard: French Army? What's that?

The movie flashes forward 10 years to late 1964 and early 1965, when President Lyndon B, Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff are considering expanding U.S. military operations in South Vietnam. Confounded by the failure of the corrupt and inept South Vietnamese government to defeat the Communist insurgency of the Viet Cong and its North Vietnamese allies, the Pentagon prepares to deploy more U.S. forces to Southeast Asia.

One of these units is an experimental unit, the 1st Air Cavalry Division. This unit had fought as a regular infantry unit in World War II and Korea; now the Army has re-equipped it with modern helicopters like the UH-1 Iroquois (“Huey”) transports. The Air Cavalry division is designed to give its soldiers an unprecedented combat asset called “air mobility.”

One of the division’s component units is the Seventh Cavalry Regiment, which is best known as George Armstrong Custer’s command in the late 19th Century. In command of one of its battalions: Lt Col. Hal Moore (Gibson), a charismatic and academically-minded officer chosen by the Pentagon to carry out its air mobility experiment and try the new unit in combat.  

The first act of “We Were Soldiers” serves to introduce viewers to Lt. Col Moore and his wife Julie (Madeleine Stowe), his children (Sloane Momsen, Taylor Momsen,Josh McLaurin, Devon Werkheiser, Luke Benward), as well as the officers and enlisted men under his command, including

• Major Bruce P. Campbell (Greg Kinnear)
• Sgt. Major Basil L. Plumley (Sam Elliott)
• 2nd Lieut. Jack Geoghegan (Chris Klein)
• Capt. Ed “Too Tall” Freeman (Mark McCracken)
• Capt. Matt Dillon (Jon Hamm)
• Capt. Tom Metsker (Clark Gregg))
• Sgt. Ernie Savage (Ryan Hurst)

We also see some of the soldiers’ wives and sweethearts, including Barbara Geoghegan (Keri Russell), Alma Givens (Simbi Kali Williams),  and Catherine Metsker (Bellamy Young) as the men prepare for the inevitable deployment to South Vietnam.

The rest of “We Were Soldiers” focuses on the first three days of the Battle of Ia Drang in mid-November 1965. In the first major ground battle of the Vietnam War, 400 U.S. soldiers engage 4,000 regular North Vietnamese Army troops led by a wily veteran of the First Indochina War against the French, Lt. Col. Nguyen Hu Aan (Don Duong).  

My Take:

“We Were Soldiers,” unlike Francis Ford Coppola's “Apocalypse Now” or Oliver Stone's “Platoon,”  portrays its soldiers realistically. It also lacks the anti-military post-Vietnam War bitterness that permeates those two films.

Some viewers might even accuse Wallace (who wrote and directed) of having a  revisionist slant, but in the featurette on the making of the movie, he points out that he was inspired to do We Were Soldiers reading Hal Moore's comment that Hollywood has never gotten it right when it comes to making movies about the Vietnam War.

Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu An: [in Vietnamese] Such a tragedy. They will think this was their victory. So this will become an American war. And the end will be the same, except for the numbers who will die before we get there.

“We Were Soldiers” not only has respect and admiration for the U.S. soldiers, but it also depicts the bravery and sacrifice of the Vietnamese People's Army. Although most of the focus is on the American troops and, unusually for a Vietnam combat movie, their families. But I have not seen the North Vietnamese portrayed with this much respect in a movie  before.

Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: [Hal Moore speaks to his men before going into battle] Look around you. In the 7th Cavalry, we've got a captain from the Ukraine; another from Puerto Rico. We've got Japanese, Chinese, Blacks, Hispanics, Cherokee Indians. Jews and Gentiles. All Americans. Now here in the States, some of you in this unit may have experienced discrimination because of race or creed. But for you and me now, all that is gone. We're moving into the valley of the shadow of death, where you will watch the back of the man next to you, as he will watch yours. And you won't care what color he is, or by what name he calls God. They say we're leaving home. We're going to what home was always supposed to be. Now let us understand the situation. We are going into battle against a tough and determined enemy.[pauses]Lt. Colonel Hal Moore: I can't promise you that I will bring you all home alive. But this I swear, before you and before Almighty God, that when we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off, and I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will all come home together. So help me, God.

Gibson portrays Lt. Col. Moore with his usual earnestness, wit and warmth. He allows us to see the human side to this very intellectual and dedicated soldier. He is not only a very pensive officer who reads French history books about Vietnam and has various college degrees, but also a loving husband and father. His scenes with Madeleine Stowe, who plays his wife Julie, exude affection and true chemistry. Also, the scene when Moore explains the concept of war to his youngest daughter is touching and tender. Rounding out the cast are Sam Elliott, Barry Pepper, Keri Russell, Greg Kinnear, Chris Klein, and Jon Hamm..

The depiction of the battle at Landing Zone X-ray ranks among the best, if sometimes grueling, war scenes ever filmed. The sequence captures the horrible yet mesmerizing spectacle of battle, taking audiences from the roller-coaster exhilaration of nap of the earth helicopter rides to a three-day life-or-death struggle between two determined bands of fighting men.

Of course, history buffs should be aware that “We Were Soldiers” takes artistic license and adds several “Hollywood-style” touches to the narrative. For instance, the film depicts the Air Cav’s use of armed UH-1C gunship models in 1965. These helicopters were heavily armed Hueys equipped with rocket pods and Gatling miniguns and provided air support to U.S. ground troops.

However, UH-1Cs were not in service in 1965, and the UH-1As and Bs in use at the time were too underpowered to handle any unofficial modifications made on the field.   There are other factual errors about military hardware, depictions of the events, and even pop culture references. These flubs are minor or only of interest to picky viewers who like to dissect movies and point out every flaw.

“We Were Soldiers” may not be 100% historically accurate, No war movie made as popular entertainment is ever truly accurate due to the dramatic and artistic requirements of the medium. But Wallace’s aim is not to educate the audience about the politics and strategy of the Vietnam War; the writer-director doesn’t strive to change anyone’s opinion about a still-controversial war. What Wallace seeks to accomplish with “We Were Soldiers” is to pay a respectful tribute to the American and Vietnamese soldiers who fought and died in the Ia Drang Valley nearly 50 years ago.  

Blu-ray Specifications

• Format: Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (DTS 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed: French, Spanish
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Warner Bros.
• Blu-ray Release Date: January 1, 2013
• Run Time: 138 minutes