We Were Soldiers **** (2002, Mel Gibson, Chris Klein, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear) – Classic Movie Review 1141

Writer-director Randall Wallace’s 2002 release stars Mel Gibson, who arms up for this raw, gung-ho Vietnam War film, in which he stars as real-life Lt Col Hal Moore, who leads an American force into ‘Nam in 1965. The movie dramatises the Battle of Ia Drang on November 14 1965.

Dumped by helicopter onto a killing field called X-Ray, 400 Yanks are surrounded by 2000 North Vietnamese. The subsequent action is excitingly and credibly staged, with blood and guts spilled everywhere. But this flag-waving tale sees the conflict entirely from the US side, and, in the dramatic scenes, sentimentality, flag-waving and clichés replace subtlety and the truth.

Gibson is his usual stalwart, earnest self, and Barry Pepper scores a hit as Joe Galloway, an eager young war correspondent. Back home, Madeleine Stowe has the raw end of things as Mrs Moore, and Chris Klein has a poor time of it as 2^nd lieutenant Jack Geoghegan.

Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Keri Russell, Don Duong, Ryan Hurst, Robert Bagnell, Marc Blucas, Josh Daugherty, Jsu Garcia, Jon Hamm, Clark Gregg, Desmond Harrington, Blake Heron, Erik MacArthur and Dylan Walsh are also all in the stalwart cast.

Braveheart writer Wallace’s screenplay is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once… and Young by Lieutenant General (Retired) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L Galloway, both of whom were at the battle.

Wallace says he was inspired by Moore complaint in his book: ‘Every damn Hollywood movie got it wrong’ and was ‘determined to get it right this time.’ Even so, the movie, though getting many of the facts of the book presented onto film, does not present an entirely historically accurate portrayal of the battle, nor is it entirely faithful to the book.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1141 derekwinnert.com