Mel Gibson takes his savage depiction of warfare to Vietnam

Rating: 9/10 (15 July 2018)

Mel Gibson did not direct this film, but his production company made the film and he served as producer, so his fingerprints are all over this film, once again bringing his savage depiction of war to the big screen in much the same way he did with "Braveheart" and "Hacksaw Ridge." Randall Wallace was the writer and director of the film and had previously worked with Gibson as screenwriter on "Braveheart" and is currently working with Gibson again on his new film "The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection." With "We Were Soldiers," Wallace and Gibson tell the true story of Lt. Col. Hal Moore in the first major US engagement with the North Vietnamese Army at the Battle of Ia Drang. Some of the events and characters were compressed for dramatic purposes, but the film is largely true to the real-life battle. The film beings with a Gibson and family living on an army base putting together a new unit for a mission overseas, entering into the first conflict of the Vietnam War, just as French forces were pulling out. Much time in this first part of the film is spent establishing the characters, two standouts being a grim Sam Elliott as Gibson's second in command and Greg Kinnear as a brash Cavalry helicopter pilot nicknamed Snakeshit, showing the men with their families, and introducing the various character dynamics while on base, but once they hit the fields of battle in Vietnam, the film is an unrelentingly brutal battle that makes up a majority of the film. Wallace does a masterful job of filming the battle scenes, especially when it comes to clearly defining the action and geography of the battlefield, which is no small feat given the scope of this battle and the many fronts needing to be shown, both in the air and on ground. The slow motion battle scenes lack the elegance of a Sam Peckinpah film, but are more in line with the straightforward brutality of Samuel Fuller or Gibson's own depiction of war. The battle scenes here are not your typical war film depictions when it comes to now shying away from showing the horrors of war. Even compared to Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" this is an especially brutal war film that is best compared to Gibson's own "Hacksaw Ridge." As with Hacksaw, although the film does not shy away from a savage depiction of war, it's not at all an anti-war film and is instead a celebration of the US military and the men who serve. The film does not really go into the politics of the Vietnam war, which was probably for the best and would have undercut the film's celebration of these soldiers. After rewatching "We Were Soldiers," and something I wonder about after watching most films directed by Gibson, is if it's more something about his own nature in wanting to show on-screen depiction of extreme violence. Even with his film about the Mayans, Gibson managed to steer the story into one that was wildly brutal and violent. Gibson may just be a disturbed individual, but he's a hell of a filmmaker. On the downside for this film, when it cuts away from the battlefield to the wives back home, it comes to a corny maudlin grinding halt. Gibson's wife in the film, Madeline Stowe, takes it upon herself to deliver the notification letters to the wives of men killed in action instead of the faceless military men delivering the grim news. This homefront story in itself, focusing on the impact of war on the families back home, would have been a worth story to tell in and of it's own, but this subplot is given short shrift and feels more just tacked on as some sort of way to illustrate the human impact of war, but it's not given enough time to be fully explored, especially when it's clear that the filmmakers were much more focused on the battle elements of the film. Overall, "We Were Soldier" is amongst the most powerful and frightening depictions of war ever committed to the screen, while at the same time celebrates and honors the military and the men who make up that fighting force, without any commentary on the war itself. Keri Russell, Chris Klein, Barry Pepper, and John Hamm also appear in the film. INTERESTING FACT: One of the real-life officers who survived the battle was Lieutenant Rick Rescorla. He died in the 9/11 attacks, while employed as Head of Security for Morgan Stanley, while making sure all of the company's employees had gotten out of the World Trade Center, which they did, and is in keeping with the brothers in arms type of heroism depicted in "We Were Soldiers."