A gem of a war film

Rating: 9/10 (12 May 2020)

We Were Soldiers reteamed Mel Gibson and Randall Wallace after working on Braveheart and I personally think it was a better film then the Scottish set epic.
We Were Soldiers told the story of the first major battle the American Army were a part of. The strenghts of the film were it's focus on the preparation before deployment and focus on battle tactics as commanders react to events on the field with Hal Moore (Gibson) and the North Vietnamese commander (Don Duong) playing a deadly game of chess. It's great for history and military nerds. Unlike Braveheart Wallace did try to be more balance with the Vietnamese soldiers being protrayed as men fighting for their country or have families back home. It was also a brutal depiction of war: Wallace and his team went to great effort to show how horrible warfare can be and the types of injuries soldiers can suffers.
There were some problems. Except for Gibson, Sam Elliott, and Barry Pepper most of the American cast blended together when on the battlefield. The action on the homefront was so sugary and sappy it could you diabetes.