Interesting war movie

Rating: 7/10 (25 November 2002)

This movie tells the story of the 'first' major battle between US and Vietnamese troops in the Vietnam war. It's an interesting movie. The amount of cheese and hollywood clichÃ© is so rich, they have to be kidding. It has an ironic feel to it, much like Starship Trooper. Scene after scene is so full of hilarious gems... The best bit with the movie is the large amount of fighting. Sometimes the story is not coherent, and the same scene - americans firing perfect shots at advancing vietnamese, who fall down en masse - is repeated over and over again. But at others times it's an excellent war movie. One especially perverse aspect I enjoyed is the almost pornographic exposure of wounded persons, complete with sentimental music. They even whisper some 'perfect' last words... Another funny thing is watching Mel Gibson whacking everyone loudly on the helmets, adding his fatherly touch as leader of the american soldiers. The real advantage of the movie is that it actually tells the story about a battle. It is a 'clean' battle. That's refreshing. The typical american Vietnam movie is usually about dope smoking soldiers performing atrocities. In movies like 'Platoon' and "Full Metal Jacket' the directors could not care less about the overall military aspect of what's happening. The overall picture told in "We Were Soldiers" is that the american military goal was really void of strategy - "kill the enemy", what a laugh - and that the tactics involved an outrageous amount of risk taking, both with lives and with the possibility of disaster for the operation. In the end, the americans pull it off. They do indeed manage to make the Vietnamese body count high. Mel Gibson then raises a tiny, tiny american flag.. if it had been a big one, someone in the theater might get offended, I guess.