Film Reviews

We Were Soldiers

• Rating:
• Director: Randall Wallace.
• Starring: Mel Gibson, Sam Elliot, Madeleine Stowe, Barry Pepper, Greg Kinnear, Chris Klein, Josh Daugherty, Edwin Morrow.
• Details: US / 140 minutes / (18).

Coming so soon after 'Black Hawk Down', 'We Were Soldiers' is another dramatic retelling of the exploits of American infantrymen in hostile territory. This time around it's the early days of the Vietnam War and Mel Gibson plays Lt. Colonel Harold Moore. Trapped in an area later to be monikored the 'Valley of Death', Moore and his men find themselves surrounded by North Vietnamese troops. Predictably, since this picture is directed by the man who wrote Braveheart and Pearl Harbor, Randall Wallace, there's no shortage of heroic figures in this movie. Quite simply, if the raison d'etre of 'We Were Soldiers' is for visceral thrills, Wallace succeeds. But as a document of why men fight and die, it fails, allowing emotional patriotism to dictate the harsh realities of conflict. 'Full Metal Jacket' it ain't.

Review by Garreth Murphy