Not Very Entertaining

Rating: Null/10 (2 March 2002)

The early buzz on "We Were Soldiers" centered around its historically accurate portrayal of the VietNam War. Unfortunately, historical accuracy does not necessarily translate into an entertaining film (imagine a two-and-a-half hour epic on Thomas Edison's work on the electric light bulb). One may argue that films like "Apocalypse Now", "The Deer Hunter", and "Full Metal Jacket" were distortions of the VietNam reality, however, they were damn good entertainment and that's why we pay $9.50 for two hours of seat rental. Who would you rather see landing a Huey in a hot LZ -- Robert Duvall and his troops blaring amplified Wagner or Greg Kinnear, on the verge of tears?
Mel Gibson and Sam Elliot were superb in their roles. Madeline Stowe, in a bad wig, was miscast as Moore's (Mel Gibson) wife. In fact, all of the wives portrayed in the film looked a little too much like Hollywood actresses.
Having suffered through "Black Hawk Down" recently (a mind-numbingly long battle scene passing itself off as a full-length feature movie), I was hoping that WWS would be as good as the advance hype. I was disappointed.