War is Hell,Mel.

Rating: 7/10 (8 August 2006)

The United States of America lost 58,000 lives in Vietnam.I don't know even a Ball Park figure for the number of Vietnamese killed.It is at the very least arguable whether the Americans were defending freedom or satisfying the ambitions and ego of Kennedy,Johnson and Nixon.The "Domino Theory" was very much in vogue at the time,this has since been proved to be not quite right - rather like "Flat Earth". One of the few things Harold Wilson is remembered fondly for is his refusal to commit British troops to this war of attrition where,basically,over a period of ten years from the events depicted in "We were soldiers" America's political will to fight was ground down and 58,000 of their fighting men died,ultimately,for nothing.God knows the military flesh was willing but the political spirit was weak,so to speak.I have nothing but respect for the brave Americans who fought the war both on the ground and ,afterwards, back home,excoriated by many for being sent against their will to be cannon-fodder in a foreign country for a cause that many were - to put it mildly - doubtful about. As a Brit with no axe to grind -and well aware that,along with the Russians,the Americans saved our arses in WW2 - I watched this movie with an open mind.I wouldn't presume to argue with the Vietnam vets who found it an accurate account of events,they were there,I wasn't. As a movie,per se,judged purely on those terms,it is a mixture of the harrowing and the clichéd.Sam Elliot's redoubtable Sergeant Major echoes back to Nigel Green in "Zulu" and many another gruff but caring noncom in movieland.Presumably there were such guys in real life,certainly if I were a grunt I'd feel much better having one around.Mel Gibson's Col Moore certainly puts himself in harm's way for most of the duration, a charismatic leader and a man of courage.Clearly the message here is the Americans were not lions led by donkeys. The NVA is treated with more respect than usual,as befits an organisation that out-thought if not out-fought a Superpower. I found the ending where the NVA leader replaced the tattered American flag slightly strained my credibility but maybe it happened.As Jonathan Miller said in "Beyond the Fringe"..."Funny thing,war". There is very little fresh that Hollywood can concoct in the "War Movie" genre beyond increased technical advances in sound and special effects to increase its reality factor,but until you actually have to dodge the bullets the cinema is never going to produce an "authentic" film. War is hell,soldiers die horribly,it's noisy,terrifying and very,very dangerous.Sitting in our air-conditioned,popcorn-crunching safety we have absolutely no idea of what it's really like. "We were soldiers" deserves respect for not sinking into the cigar- chomping foul-mouthed sneering G.I.mould .Whether it accurately depicts the event it concerns only those who were there are qualified to say.