WE WERE SOLDIERS

By: Abbie Bernstein
Date: Friday, March 01, 2002

From the evidence in WE WERE SOLDIERS, director/screenwriter Randall Wallace knows much more about how men die than how they live. In this drama based on the nonfiction book We Were Soldiers Once... and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, Wallace depicts the first major clash between U.S. Army forces and the North Vietnamese military in November of 1965. Wallace stages some impressively intense and upsetting battles, making the violence and carnage as realistic-seeming as possible. It's before and after the guns are spit and the mortars explode that he and the film have problems.

There is nothing wrong with a non-ironic, respectful view of American soldiers and their families. However, it's one thing to convey that Col. Hal Moore, his wife Julie and their five kids along with the men in Moore's command and their kin are decent people. It's another thing to saddle them with dialogue that feels almost as if it goes out of its way to sound pat, on the nose and generally about 35 years out of date. People in 1965 movies talked like this (minus the swearing, of course), but it's doubtful that anybody in the real world of 1965 ever did.

This flaw might not be so noticeable if the film's first act wasn't spent setting up life at the Army base, where Moore meets his new squad, Battalion Five of the Seventh Airborne Cavalry (they have helicopters instead of steeds). These are wholesome, churchgoing people who do not question authority and have no mixed motives. Granted, as a filmmaker, Wallace is answerable to a number of real, still-living persons who are depicted here (source material authors Moore and Joe Galloway, played by Barry Pepper, are both characters in the film), but it would have been nice if he understood that showing a few signs of human fallibility is not a mark of insult but rather an acknowledgement of the characters' humanity.

As it

is, we wind up feeling lectured by people who seem to be less than candid with us and indeed, less than fully present. However, once the movie makes it to the highlands of Vietnam and battle is joined, the action becomes harrowingly credible. Wallace takes pains to show that the Vietnamese forces consist of men with families and ethics of their own, although the film is certainly pro-American. Wallace is to be credited with making the fighting look terrifying and woe-inspiring, rather than like an adventure. The solemnity in the ending voiceovers is earned it's just the earlier verbiage that rings false.

The cast are very well chosen, with Gibson conveying the charisma and authority of a natural commander. Sam Elliott, as the crusty sergeant under Gibson's colonel, is convincingly cranky and weathered his attitude enlivens his lines. Greg Kinnear is quietly effective as a helicopter pilot who becomes progressively more appalled by the carnage and Chris Klein and Ryan Hurst (the excellent star high school footballer in REMEMBER THE TITANS) both do strong work as soldiers. Madeleine Stowe plays Gibson's stalwart wife with appropriate conviction.

While comparisons are odious, it's hard to avoid noting similarities between WE WERE SOLDIERS  and the similar-themed (albeit differently located in time and place) BLACK HAWK DOWN. Both films depict the courage of men under fire with skill and appreciation for heroism and camaraderie in both cases, we cannot help but be moved by the risks the soldiers take to rescue the wounded. However, BLACK HAWK DOWN, in showing men who sometimes argue with one another and question their mutual purpose, winds up feeling a lot more like something that really happened than the reverential vision of WE WERE SOLDIERS.

WE WERE SOLDIERS

Grade: B

Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release

Rated: R

Stars: Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Chris Klein

Writer: Randall Wallace, based on the book We Were Soldiers Once... and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway

Director: Randall Wallace

Distributor: Paramount Pictures