Wonderful story, but badly directed

Rating: 6/10 (22 October 2002)

If you ever want to compare and contrast two movies of similar content for differences in direction, watch "We Were Soldiers" and "Black Hawk Down". Randall Wallace is so out of his depth in trying to convey dimension and depth to both the story and the characters that it's often painful to watch. The cliched and stereotypical scenes in the movie scream of amateurish direction. (Two scenes in particular: the wives' get-together with the "Whites Only" reference to the laundromat, and the "Tell my wife I love her" line so badly delivered that I laughed in spite of myself.)
Keep in mind: I love war movies. I do not love them for their action. I don't even love them for the strategy and intelligence depicted in the arena of conflict. I love them because, when they're done correctly, these films show us the sacrifice and unreasonable commitment soldiers bring to the aforementioned arena. I genuinely feel for the soldiers when I see just what they are subjected to in combat. "Black Hawk Down" left me wanting to know more about the brave rangers. "Patton" left me wanting to learn more about the courage of General Patton's army. "We Were Soldiers" almost didn't do that because of inept directing. Randall Wallace needs to hone his craft before he takes on such projects.
See WWS, but see BHD first.