We Were Soldiers (2002)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Randall Wallace, based on the book by Lt. Gen. Harold Moore (ret.)
Directed by Randall Wallace
Starring Mel Gibson, Sam Elliott, Greg Kinnear, Madeleine Stowe, Chris Klein, Keri Russell, and Barry Pepper

Features

• Commentary by director/writer Wallace
  
• Deleted scenes with commentary
  
• ”Getting It Right” making-of featurette
  

Rating: R

Anamorphic: Yes

My advice: Own it.

We Were Soldiers relates the story of the 1st Air Cavalry, led by Hal Moore, from their training in the mid-60s, as the helicopter was first being experimented with as a means of deploying troops rapidly, to the battle of the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam, their first deployment under hostile conditions – and a battle that nearly cost them all their lives. Based on the book that Moore subsequently wrote about the experience, the film manages to convey Moore’s leadership skills, keen tactical thinking, and compassion for his men, as well as the courage and determination of those men, without ever coming across as jingoistic – a notable feat for an American-made war movie.

Having only barely finished their training, Moore’s unit is sent to Vietnam and ordered into the Ia Drang Valley, site of a previous disaster for the French military that cost them hundreds of troops. Moore, despite being sent on a fool’s errand by his superior officers, resolves to make the best of the situation, and attempt to keep as many men alive as he possibly can, and guaranteeing that nobody, living or dead, gets left behind. What follows is a non-stop firefight that spanned three days in mid-November of 1965. It marked the first engagement of U.S. troops and members of the North Vietnamese regular military, with the Americans outnumbered nearly 10 to 1 against a foe that knew the terrain and was entrenched in a deep cave complex in one of the mountains nearby. Despite overwhelming odds, a lack of adequately experienced officers, weapons unfamiliar to most of the troops, bad intelligence, inadequate supplies, and a host of other factors, Moore managed to lead his troops to one of the most surprising victories in military history, through sheer determination and a brilliant head for strategy.

Wallace’s direction and writing do the story good justice, though the adaptation is not without some flaws. The politically correct attempt to create some degree of sympathy for the North Vietnamese soldiers may be laudable to some degree (though I suspect it is nothing more than Hollywood’s PC attitude gone rampant), but if you want to create that level of sympathy, more screen time needs to be invested. As it stands, there’s too little time spent to make it convincing, so it comes across as little more than a token effort that was required of Wallace by his studio or his political leanings.

The performances are phenomenal throughout the film. Every soldier given more than a moment’s screen time for an ignoble death manages to create some depth to the squad of soldiers that faced such tremendous odds. Gibson is spot on as the military leader who cares so much for his men that every single casualty is a personal tragedy, and Elliott does an equally splendid job as the gruff NCO that, at bottom, cares every bit as much as his superior officer does, but can’t let it show. Stowe is great as the long-suffering military wife, who saddles herself with the burden of delivering the dreaded telegram notifications to the spouses of the men that die in Ia Drang. The entire “death notice” delivery sequence is very powerful, but again given very little time, so Stowe’s performance is all that holds it together.

Aside from the two subplots that don’t get enough play to even really qualify as such, the film is excellent in all regards excepting the score (which sounds exactly like every score for every war movie I’ve ever seen – I’m waiting for someone to move beyond the low horns/plaintive strings/snare drum school of military movie music, but I may be waiting a while, it seems). The inclusion of Moore himself as a technical advisor on the picture keeps the whole very close to the source material, and creates a depiction of conflict in Vietnam that is as accurate as possible, from the basics like equipment and uniforms to more complex issues like shorthand radio chatter and slang.

Extras are solid. The commentary is very informative, and sheds even more light on the larger-than-life Moore, as well as the unique challenges of creating a realistic war film involving such constant action – there are constant explosions and gunfire during all the scenes in the Ia Drang Valley, and having to plan a wide shot full of soldiers around a series of artillery charges can’t have been easy. The deleted scenes are interesting, and many of them were cut purely for reasons of time, as the film runs over two hours in its finished form. A few don’t serve to advance the story, and were cut as unnecessary chaff, but Wallace’s commentary on even these scenes is interesting. More of the same kind of information is found in the “Getting It Right” documentary, which revolves primarily around the challenges of creating as realistic a portrayal of Vietnam as possible.

If you like war films with more story and character development than explosions, this might be your cup of tea. Not to say there’s not plenty of pyrotechnics burned in this one, but the explosions take a back seat to the real-life heroes that survived them. If you’re not usually a fan of such things, I still recommend you rent this one – it does for Vietnam what Saving Private Ryan did for D-Day, and does it better on all fronts.