Mel Gibson plays another idealistic war hero, bursting at the seams with charge-leading integrity in this detailed, true account of the first harrowing battle of the Vietnam War, based on Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway's book We Were Soldiers Once…And Young. Under-prepared, outnumbered and ill-informed about the resistance they'd encounter, Gibson's unit loses men left and right in a cinematic but chillingly realistic and tensely sustained battle that takes lives indiscriminately, without warning or melodramatic fanfare. Unfortunately, screenwriter-director Randall Wallace (who penned Braveheart) goes too far with the film's powerful emotions during well-timed breaks from the firefight to focus on the soldiers' wives (anyone for a gratuitously maudlin montage of new widows crying?). But smaller problems aside, each time the firing resumes, you'll tense up something fierce because We Were Soldiers definitely succeeds in capturing the chaos, the grave danger, and especially the heroism all-but-forgotten in the stateside turmoil that overshadowed the war. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by screenwriter-director-producer Randall Wallace, a 25-minute "Getting it Right" behind the scenes featurette on accuracy, and 10 deleted scenes with optional commentary from Wallace. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a powerful film.] (R. Blackwelder)
We Were Soldiers
Paramount, 138 min., R, VHS: $106.99, DVD: $29.95, Aug. 20 Volume 17, Issue 4
We Were Soldiers
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