We Were Soldiers Review

Looking for something to watch in HD last night, I stumbled across the movie We Were Soldiers on the TNT Network. The film, starring Mel Gibson, Greg Kinnear, Madeline Stowe and a raft of unknowns, made barely a blip on my radar when it was released in 2002 but it had an impact last night. This is a good war film that attempts to document a single battle in Vietnam in November 1965. It is based on a book called We Were Soldiers Once... and Young, written by a retired general named Hal Moore and a UPI reporter named Joe Galloway. (Galloway was with Moore's troops for the entire battle.)

The film starts as the Vietnamese are driving the French out of what was then called French Indochina in the 1950s. The Vietnamese are ruthless and the commander orders that all prisoners be killed, since the French are unlikely to send more soldiers if all are killed. A young Vietnamese soldier takes that lesson to heart and -- a decade later -- plans to punish the Americans similarly when US soldiers arrive.

Mel Gibson plays Hal Moore, who was a lieutenant colonel when the battle occurred in 1965. Gibson is just perfect for the role and is totally believable as an Army officer who does what he's told with the soldiers he's been given. Always trying to out-think the North Vietnamese commander, Moore skillfully places his troops where the enemy commander least expects them. Still, the Americans are heavily outnumbered and use vulnerable helicopters as their only lifeline. Wave after wave of fierce North Vietnamese troops pour over the Americans, including one American platoon that foolishly rushed off to chase a single Vietnamese soldier.

However, the Americans have something that the French did not: air power. While the Vietnamese commander plans assaults and flanking maneuvers, the Americans call in airborne firepower to wipe out the numerical advantage of the Vietnamese.

Except for about 15 minutes at the beginning and 10 minutes at the end, We Were Soldiers is one long battle. The real battle stretched over three days and the film gives a good sense of this time frame. And the focus is on just this battle -- there are a couple of references to the politics and planning of the Vietnam War, but these are drowned out by whistling bullets and blasting artillery. It gets pretty intense on the battlefield.

One of the more interesting parts of this film is that it looks behind the enemy lines to see the personalities of the enemy soldiers. There's also a glimpse into a North Vietnamese soldier's life, as he dotes lovingly over a picture of a woman. We seldom get to see enemy soldiers as anything more than vicious automatons, but We Were Soldiers adds a little humanity to the Vietnamese. There's not a lot of enemy viewpoint, but there's enough to add interest.

Otherwise, there is not really a plot to We Were Soldiers... it's strictly fast-moving battle action and it's pretty good. It's heroic, bloody and somewhat depressing, but it also has its share of thrills and interesting historical perspective. An occasional flash back to the homefront is also illuminating, especially the colonel's wife as she takes on the sad task of informing other wives when their husbands have been killed.

I recommend We Were Soldiers. The action is heavy and the overall tone is sad, but it is a good -- even valuable -- war film.