Nothing special

Rating: 6/10 (20 March 2005)

Vietnam War films have always tried to capture the horrors of war, especially the personal horror of those involved.
We Were Soldiers was somewhat of an enigma. On the one hand, it tried to be anti-war like most, if not all, Vietnam War films. However, at the same time, it was stupidly 'patriotic' to the point where it becomes just another pretentious American tripe. It was also extremely biased. Whereas films like Platoon showed the atrocities committed by both sides, We Were Soldiers has every American soldier with a halo above his head.
Filled with cheesy lines and silly American gung-ho attitude, it's hard to take this film seriously and as a result, its message comes across very weakly (not that its message is very well developed or anything new). A highly predictable ending doesn't help things either.
The scenes of Gibson's wife (played by Madeleine Stowe) back home, as an attempt to show the affects of the war on the families of the soldiers, were poor, underdeveloped and a bore.
On the other hand, the fighting is strong and exhilarating. The battle of tactics between Mel Gibson and the Vietnamese leader was very interesting.
A watchable film with one or two good performances, but nothing special.