Powerful, moving, important

Rating: 9/10 (2 March 2002)

"We Were Soldiers" is a powerful and moving testament to the men who fought & died in the Ia Drang valley on 1965. It succeeds by abandoning the politics of so many other Vietnam films and simply focusing on the experiences of the men in the moment. This was the tack taken by "Black Hawk Down", but by putting a clearer face on the enemy and by making the film about the way the battle changed the men, this film is actually better.
Mel Gibson gives a solid performance at Lt. Col. Moore and Sam Elliot is excellent as his second in command, a battle hardend Sargent Major who knows how to act in a fight. The other performances are all blended together nicely, and the action is intense and horrifying. War is not glorified in this picture, nor is America. The stark scene at the end of the film of the Vietnam Memorial drives home the point that this film was about and for those wen in the Valley of Death. Writer/Director Randall Wallace deserves credit for creating a moving picture of the first real battle of the Vietnam War, and in so doing earns a bit of forgiveness for writing "Pearl Harbor". All in all, an important movie that pulls no punches emotionally.