Much ado about nothing but a lot of shooting

Rating: 5/10 (28 June 2002)

I waited a while to see this film because I knew that it was produced by the greatest over-producer of all time, Jerry Bruckheimer. I bit because of Ridley Scott and I'm getting into wanting to see movies where war is portrayed as "real" instead of "glorious". This movie didn't do much of anything for me. Sure, it has the highest G.S.P.M. (gun shots per minute) of any movie I think I've ever seen, but this does not a movie make. This whole movie rested its case on the fact that it was based on a true story and was simply describing events. This wasn't real movie making, this was dramatized documenting. Did anyone really care about anyone in particular in the movie? How could you? None of the characters were developed well enough to become interesting or to bring any empathy to them by the viewer. After watching about 6 billion rounds of ammo fired, hundreds killed, gratuitous and gory imagery (I'm sure this was to make it "edgy"), this one leaves me flat. I've seen a lot of reviews sort on knocking "Saving Private Ryan" and saying this was much better. Hogwash. Both "Saving Private Ryan" and "We Were Soldiers" elicited true feelings from me as opposed to feeling like I was simply viewing a violent exposition for the sake of the violence itself. Save your money.