I rented this out, now I've bought it

Rating: 9/10 (1 January 2005)

A brilliant war movie by anyone's standards. I heard that this movie would make Saving Private Ryan look like Dad's Army. I doubted that very much, SPR had realism unlike any other war film, in it's time, SPR was the best and only realistic war movie out there. It was revolutionary, and I just knew that We Were Soldiers could not live up to the same standards. WWS had little hype before it's release, especially when compared to SPR. How terribly wrong I was. WWS surpasses SPR in every department. In this movie, we get a feel for the REAL horrors of war. This film is not for the faint hearted, but if you want to see and learn about war, you need to watch this film. The film starts slowly, I admit that, and it takes a while for the Air Cavalry to get to Vietnam, but once the action starts, it never stops. The action scenes are VERY long. The action takes over three days and we see small scale and large scale skirmishes between the to forces. We are taken from one platoon to another, and there are no gung ho running about the place. The soldiers keep their heads down and stay down, firing in short controlled bursts as they should.
However, at one point, there seems to be a hell of a lot of explosions, which I believe was only done for the camera and for action's sake.
But one tactic that is used is to build up character profiles and personalities, which are then systematically destroyed as we see grisly depictions of their death. We think, because of their good nature, that they will make it through, when in fact they do not. The film would not be as moving if it was not for the musicians. The slow, mournful music adds to the despair and carnage, perhaps bringing a tear to the eye of the viewer. A deeply moving story, which is worth another viewing by you.