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| We Were Soldiers [2002] | ![We Were Soldiers [2002]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S2TMW1MKL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Randall Wallace
Actors: Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Chris Klein
Studio: Icon Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: £13.99
Buy Used: £1.20
You Save: £12.79 (91%)
Buy New/Used from £1.20
Avg. Customer Rating:  (62 reviews)
Sales Rank: 5398
Format: Pal, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Vietnamese (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Media: DVD
Running Time: 133 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 7321900934787
ASIN: B00006BT9R
Release Date: April 18, 2005
Theatrical Release Date: March 1, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Amazon.co.uk Review
IWe Were Soldiers/I, based on the bestselling account of the battle of La Drang valley at the outset of the Vietnam War, is the latest Mel Gibson IBraveheart/I-esque offering where plot and characterisation, rather than the men who lost their lives in the conflict, are the most serious casualties. The story follows Lt. Colonel Hal Moore (Gibson) and his platoon through a brief spell at boot camp and then into the battle itself. p In place of the moral ambiguity offered by, say, IPlatoon/I or IHamburger Hill/I, IWe Were Soldiers/I presents us with archetypes. Gibson's family man colonel is almost a parody of Patton, a man with so much heart you wonder how he manages to get up in the morning. He's a good Catholic, loves his men, and tells us that he's the first one on the battlefield and the last one off. And if that self-eulogising wasn't enough we have the slow-mo, heavily scored last-one-into-the-helicopter moment to prove it. In uncomfortably jingoistic contrast, the commander of the Viet Cong never leaves his cavernous headquarters as he sends his faceless foot soldiers to their death. p What saves the film are Ryan Hurst's performance as the stoic Sergeant Ernie Savage and Barry Pepper's non-combatant journalist who gets caught up in the action and has to fight to survive, both of whom inject some much-needed humanity into the action. Otherwise there is so little character development before the offensive that you find yourself squinting at the screen trying to work out who just bought the bullet when you really should be feeling every gunshot. IBraveheart/I scribe Randall Wallace's direction is heavy handed and over sentimental--relentless violence masquerades as poignant remembrances of the futility of war--and the only time it ever approaches genuine emotion is the scene where the wives begin receiving telegrams detailing their husband's deaths. When measured against IHamburger Hill/I and IFull Metal Jacket/I, IWe Were Soldiers/I doesn't even deserve to be in the same platoon. --IKristen Bowditch/I
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| Customer Reviews: Read 57 more reviews...
 Hysterically Bad May 8, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Must be a strong contender for the most dreadful Vietnam war movie ever. Go for Platoon, Apocalypse Now or something (anything!) else.
Flawed, Unoriginal, but quality entertainment. April 3, 2008
As with the title, this films has flaws that should embarrass the makers more than the Vietnam War embarrassed the White House. A made for TV Movie in some parts and the rest is a seen it all before.br /However! That is not to say there's no point in watching. It made remarkably uncomfortable viewing. This film covers the first military action of the States in Vietnam, and from the off they are screwed in their strategy and execution (Gibson does his best to show his character knows the government's naivety and is maybe making a poor attempt at modern day anti-Iraq propaganda perhaps?) of this battle and the war as a whole.br /It does stay with you seeing the first of thousands of Americans to die in what was to be an unwinnable war. And once the action gets going it really is rather good.br /Certainly not up there with the best war movies for quality, but makes you think as much as they do anyway.br /So, 4 stars which it just about manages, but is being held back by too many old hat tricks of the trade that went out of fashion in the nineties.br /
 VERY old fashioned March 8, 2008
The story centers around one of the big turning points in the Vietnam War - the point at which the NVA join the Viet Cong in fighting the South Vietnamese and their American allies. The film basically follows the lead up to the major battle, occasionally with the focus switching to the wives back home. br /br /The battles are well shot and staged. The NVA aren't portrayed as commun-nazis (although they do get shot down in storm-trooper like waves). The problem is the mind-numbing, simplistic nature of the script. It's like watching a WW2 film from over 50 years ago - simple, straight forward heroics, no moral ambiguity, no questions or issues dwelled over. Everyone knows what they are fighting for, no-one has any doubts. The Americans keep up their spirits with folksy good humour whilst fighting wave after wave of NVA. Almost each and every time the wily Americans outwit the NVA, who get killed in their thousands.br /br /Once or twice I shouted at the telly during the film. One of them was when the wives back home are having some sort of coffee morning. One tells the rest of the group how amusing it was that the local laundromat only allowed you to wash your white clothes, because they had a sign outside the door that said "Whites Only". The rest of the women looked embarrassed, especially for the token black wife. The woman who told the sorry then realises the significance of the "whites only" sign, and comments how terrible that was, and apologises to the black wife. The black wife is all sass, saying how her and her man don't need respect from people like that. She does everything but wag her finger and say "girlfriend" in fact. She then mentions something about how proud she she is of her man "and what he is fighting for".br /br /This scene in the film raises two problems. Firstly, we are expected to believe that an American woman in the 60's wouldn't know what a "Whites Only" sign was referring to. What we have here is probably the most ham-fisted attempt by scriptwriters to deal with historical political issues I have seen in a while. No race riots, no segregation, lynching, or anything else. The 'inconvenience' of being a black woman in 60's America solved through some very 21st century sass. You want political simplicity, here it is by the cartload. br /br /The other issue is the line "and what he is fighting for". What exactly were the Americans fighting for in Vietnam? Again, the film doesn't deal with that issue either. It doesn't even bother. As they are all such good, decent, Christian men, they must be on the right side by default, so we don't need to ask what the are fighting for. It's rather hard to give this film any credence at all when there has been a raft of excellent Vietnam films, films which deal with the moral ambiguity, films which ask questions and offer few answers; Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Born on the Fourth of July, Apocalypse Now. br /br /I don't know if this a reactionary, jingoistic film as I have read about, but it's certainly not a film that will educate you or make you think about anything differently. It just about entertains. Watch it if it would come as a surprise to you that fighting in a war is scary and dangerous - that's probably about all I can say about it.
 stifling intense. January 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mel Gibson is Mel gibson,whether you personaly take that as good or bad is purely at your discretion.However,as Lt Col Hal Moore,i have to say i was truly enthralled and inspired by his portrayal of a hugely brave soldier.Quite how any of us would have coped,both at home and on the battlefield,is a question for the more passionate of us to comprehend.Not,then,a hollywood shoot-em-up but an astonishingly good telling of a story that deserves to be among us.Filmed with the 100% power and commitment this story needed,it is compassionate and emotive but at no stage does it glorify war for in reality there can be no glory in it although it has to be sometimes.Forget the megastar actors,just sit back and let them portray the facts,as its a tale that is too good to have been fiction.It is refreshing to see the enemy as the professional soldiers they were,too,without the usual hollywood take on them as just dang asking for it.magnificent.
Mel Gibson's Finest Performance October 3, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
br /This is one of the best films made about the VietNam war; a brilliant script drawn from a brilliant book. The action is breathtaking and the film also cleverly puts us into the social consequences of the war - what the wives of the soldiers went through. I was left with a deep respect for the soldiers as well as their families. The criticism that the film is sentimental fails to take into account the first premise that the war is about people, combatants and families both. This film's innovation is that it shows that war brings challenges and pain on and off the battlefield. This film succeeds on a range of levels, but it is Mel Gibson that makes this film really special - his performance is just brilliant. Forget 'Braveheart', great film as it is - this is Mel Gibson's finest performance in a film. This is a GREAT war film and I highly recommend it.
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