Excellent

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2002)

Excellent movie I thought, better than Black Hawk Down - better setup, more context. A few things I have read about this movie - Galloway and Moore would not sell the story to Hollywood for quite a while, they wanted to be sure the story was treated with the proper respect, not turned into an anti-war screed, so they only sold the rights to Randall Wallace and Mel Gibson when they were convinced the story would be told accurately. The dialog is what was actually said, those who call it a cliche, what should they have done, change it to reflect someone elses idea of what would sound realistic?
The movie is really about the code of honor among the men, the sacrafice they made, it makes no judgement about the merits of the war, those that complain about that definitely miss the point. And of course, its about the American side, yes it treats American deaths with more feeling than NV deaths. But there is some view of the other side, presented in a balanced manner. Good job by Gibson, probably helps that he played a compelling character, and nice supporting role for Sam Eliot. 8/10