We Were Not Entertained

Rating: 3/10 (8 September 2002)

Have we seen this type of movie before? Yes we have, but better. Overly sentimental dramatisation of real events that took place in Vietnam in 1965. From a military aspect, elements of the film are real, but what detracts from the realism is the lack of depth to the characters. Added to this are a number of disturbing factors:-
1) The Seargent Major's (Sam Elliots) amazing ability to dodge bullets whilst standing perfectly still in the middle of the battlefield, as all his men around him are killed. 2) The film looks like it was shot in my back garden (really) and most certainly NOT the jungles of Vietnam. 3) The continual repetition of 'Tell my wife I love her' everytime a soldier was shot.
Now granted, the gore was well handled and we got the standard thematic music played over the slo-mo battle shots (a la Braveheart), but unlike Braveheart, Vietnam has been well documented and dramatising it only serves to detatch us from that realism. Some have argued that this film shows us how futile war really is. To them I say, do you really need to watch this movie to realise that?

This film is cliche-ridden and brings absolutely nothing to the genre. It seems to point at Wallace's desire to pull on our heartstrings using the dramatisation of historical events, but it isn't Braveheart and nor is it Saving Private Ryan. This puts Wallace on par with Bruckheimer and company in regards to film-making in my book. Disappointing!