yet another makeover of the corpse of US/Vietnam

Rating: 1/10 (22 August 2002)

Hmm. Hard to know where to start.
First of all, it needs to be said that it is absolutely impossible to "spoil" this movie; that is, give away something crucial in the plot or character development that a new viewer would want to be a surprise. Do people agree with me that this movie can't be "spoiled"?
There's a chance this movie might/could be construed as a verite revelation of the depths of self-deception, abuse-of-power, and might-driven neocolonialism into which the US had sunk by that time. I mean, think about it: Imagine Mel and the gang really believing that the "wheels" would never, ever, ever abuse the sacred trust of the military contract--the contract in which they agree to exchange their lives for the defense of their country--by sending deadly power where it has absolutely no business being.
That might have made for a good, even redemptive, motivating idea behind this movie. Unfortunately, I can't grant this redemptive interpretation.
I suspect the movie is trying to say something grand; dare I say "new"; about heroism, and its highest expression. To address this, I'm going to compare the climactic "heroic" moment from this movie to the climactic "heroic" moment from the first "Jurassic Park" movie. Sad to say; they're comparable.
Remember the Jurassic Park theme music? John Williams wrote sundry variations on that theme for use in mood-setting in the movie. At the end, when Our Heroes are about to get pounced upon by a raptor, the rex snatches the raptor in mid-pounce and shakes it about in apparent reptilian thrill-of-the-chase glee. Listen to what happens in the sound track: That's the moment when they deploy the "heroic" orchestration of the Jurassic Park theme by Williams. But: Why are they playing a heroic theme? The rex isn't a hero! She isn't "Lassie"! She didn't "save" our protagonists; she was hungry! There's a nasty and insulting dissonance between the music and the depicted event that deprives the movie of any redeeming value it might have retained up to that point. It's insulting because it blythely assumes you're not going to notice.
The same thing happened at the "big" moment at the end of We Were Soldiers. It's the scene where Mel and the (surviving) gang walk over a ridge, into a line of VC. At that moment, when it appears a VC gunner is about to plug Mel (oh my God! Not *MEL*!), the day is saved by air support, and we're treated to an enchanting 5+ minute slo-mo hi-tech blood fest where massive air support absolutely riddles the VC lines with a cats-and-dogs hail of hot lead. Bring up the "triumphal", "heroic" theme, the one that informs us that we can all relax in the sure knowledge that Mel will get his millions. The VC blood is flowing like champagne at a debutante ball. It's party time! But where's the heroism in this? It's not heroic! It's just as dissonant in this regard as the scene at the end of Jurassic Park! When one bank robber blows away a cop about to nab his accomplice, he's not a hero.
I'll tell you who the heros are.
The real heros in this story are the people who spent vast resources over the last 25 years to save us from having to face the moral debacle of Vietnam. They've spent billions of dollars and countless light-years of celluloid to remind us that a technologically advanced people who traveled thousands of miles to a primitive agrarian culture to maim and kill those who resisted our socioeconomic intrusions are, at heart, a well-meaning bunch of folks, really just wanting to bring the light of democracy and freedom to rice farmers.
I've thought about the Vietnam movies. Doesn't it seem like each one hopes to drive the last nail into the coffin of that legacy? Do we need yet another nail? Isn't this hapless coffin bristling with nails, looking by now like a porcupine? Wouldn't that tell you something? What it tells me is that these movies aren't nails. They're countless cinematic makeup specialists trying to give the corpse the final "makeover" that will finally convince us of the lie we want so bad to believe, but never will, because there's a place deep down inside each of us that knows it will die once and for all if we believe a lie that big and that ugly. And I'm talking about the lie that says our intentions in Vietnam were good, and we were there defending freedom and democracy.
This movie is yet another corpse makeover masquerading as a nail in the coffin. Reject it. Get informed. If you give a rat's a*s, read up on Vietnam, weep over our hubris, apologize to those wounded by that legacy, vow to do what you can to return our military heritage to that envisioned by the founders: The defense of our territory from intrusion from outsiders; not a tool in the hands of global economic power junkies. Scrape the countless layers of makeup off the corpse, grieve over it, bury it, and move on.