Wir waren Helden

"We Were Soldiers" is based on a real life battle of the Viet Nam war that took place in 1965 in a remote part of Viet Nam. It is based on a book by Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway who are portrayed in the film by Mel Gibson and Barry Pepper respectively.

The film opens with a depiction of the 1954 slaughter of French troops by the Vietnamese army. Twenty one years later Lt. Col Moore (Gibson) and his battalion of 395 men are thrust unknowingly into the same hornet's nest consisting of some 4,000 battle hardened Viet Nam regulars who have been fighting their enemies for many years.

Director Randall Wallace tells the story from three perspectives. Firstly from the viewpoint of the Americans. Outnumbered ten to one they face impossible odds. How Col. Moore rallies his troops and gets them to pull together as a team is a central theme of the picture. Secondly, the story is told from the viewpoint of the wives and families left behind and the problems they have to deal with. Lastly, the Vietnamese army is shown not as unfeeling monsters, but as a professional army defending their beliefs and territory.

The battle scenes are as realistic and convincing as any war movie that you will ever see. We suffer through the casualties both on the battlefield and at home along with the participants. The special effects are seamless and exciting.

Mel Gibson gives a convincing performance as Moore and if you watch the DVD, you can see the amazing similarities between the two men. Madeleine Stowe plays Julie Moore and Keri Russell plays Barbara Geoghegan two of the wives who take on the unenviable task of delivering those dreaded telegrams to the widows from the War Department. Chris Klein plays Russell's husband Jack a new officer and father. His scene with Gibson in the base chapel is memorable. Greg Kinnear plays Captain Crandall the head of Moore's helicopter fleet. Don Duong is very effective as the Vietnamese commander. But acting cudos go to veteran Sam Elliot as the crusty Sgt. Major Plumley.

"We Were Soldiers" is a gripping Viet Nam war drama told in a way that reflects ALL of the participants in an impartially realistic way. As Hank Moore says on the DVD, They finally got it right.

I for one am someone who was inspired to read the book "We were Soldiers Once and Young" after seeing this movie. WWS is about a distinct event that actually happened. SGM Plumley was a soldier's soldier, with five combat jumps in three wars and an astounding three combat infantry badges. LTC Moore was the sort of leader who could keep his head and lead his troops through the worst of battle. People who complain of clichés in this movie might as well complain that people in 18th century movies wear three-cornered hats.

To those looking for an anti-war message, it is there. When Moore goes to Division headquarters and gets his mission, he asks about projected enemy in his area of operations. The staff officer standing next to the general says "a manageable number." To this Moore responds with words to the effect of "which means you have no idea." It turns out that Moore's battalion gets dropped on top of a vastly larger enemy force (if I remember correctly, they get dropped right next to an NVA brigade). Ordinarily, it order to assure success in attack, you want to have three times the numbers of your enemy. In this case, the ratio was 4:1 going the other way. Then the battle is about how artillery and air support makes up the difference in numbers.

The obvious criticism here is that the command was fumbling around in the dark. At the end of the movie, the names of the 70+ men who died are prominently displayed on the screen. A military mind is not treasonous and will not disrespect its superiors, but it will let facts speak for themselves.

The next comment is only tangentially related to this movie. However, many voices here have taken the opportunity to vent their views on Vietnam, so I feel compelled to put things in a broader historical context.

There was a war that did not take place between 1945 and the fall of the Berlin wall. It would have been called WWIII. The Soviet Union and the US stood eye-to-eye for 40+ years, but did not blink. It was an ideological conflict with an evil that meant death to 50+ million people in communist countries in this century. It was conflict with a system that vastly constrained freedom. Fortunately for the world, the US finally prevailed. The struggle fought between communism and the west was fought in a variety of ways: in public relations, in sports, in propaganda, and in a series of proxy wars. In Korea, Greece, Vietnam, Afghanistan and a variety of smaller stages, East contested with West. To the people caught up in these local conflicts, these wars were absolute tragedies. However, in the grand scheme of things, these conflicts pale to insignificance when compared to the 500,000,000 who would have died in WWIII.

It is hard to stand out and be a unique war film. They've been making war films pretty much since the invention of film it seems. So you would think by now that it's all been done before, and for the most part it has. Yet We Were Soldiers manages to separate itself from the pack and give us a unique take on one particular battle in one particular war. Depicted here is the first major battle involving American troops in the Vietnam War. The fact that this battle takes place in what is known as the Valley of Death tells you all you need to know about what awaits the men who head into combat.

The central figure in the movie is Lt. Col Hal Moore, played by Mel Gibson. Moore, leading the 7th Cavalry, will train his men and lead them into whatever hell awaits them. The film begins back home as Moore assembles his new unit and begins to whip them into shape. Here we learn much about what makes Hal Moore tick and begin to see him for the true leader of men he is. These opening scenes are important as they show many of Moore's motivations and also the obstacles which are placed in his way. The time back home also allows us to see Moore the family man with his strong, stoic wife, played by Madeline Stowe, and their young children. We also meet other key characters. There is Moore's second-in-command, battle-tested Sgt. Maj. Plumley, played with wonderful gruffness and all the appropriate seriousness by Sam Elliott. There is helicopter pilot Bruce Crandall, played by Greg Kinnear, and young Lt. Jack Geoghegan, played, surprisingly well for someone who came to prominence in a silly farce like American Pie, by Chris Klein. But the key figure throughout is undeniably Moore and Gibson's strong, confident portrayal is a key to the movie's success.

While important in establishing the key characters and the emotional ties that bind them to each other and those whom they are leaving behind, the opening scenes back home have a feeling of just biding time about them. The film really takes off when the 7th Cavalry is dropped into the Valley of Death and confronts the overwhelming enemy force which awaits them. The rest of the film deals with this one epic, unrelenting battle. It sounds clichéd but the battle scenes are so well choreographed and photographed that you do truly feel as if you are there. The intensity of the conflict jumps off the screen. The focus is on the valor and heroism of the American soldiers but unlike so many war films which present a nameless, faceless enemy we also get to see things from the Vietnamese perspective. We see the enemy leaders detailing their strategy and also are presented with reminders that the Americans are not the only ones with loving, concerned families back home. We see the toll on both sides, not just for the soldiers but perhaps most poignantly in scenes inter-cut from home where soldiers' wives wait to learn the fates of the men they love.

We Were Soldiers is a brutally honest, unflinching look at the hell that is war. It is a story which begged to be told. Seeing as it is adapted from a book by two of the central figures in the conflict, Hal Moore and reporter Joe Galloway who found himself thrust into the middle of the conflict (and who is played wonderfully by Barry Pepper in the film) you can rest assured that unlike so many other war films this one would focus on "getting it right." The film tells it as it truly was. It is at times invigorating and inspiring and at other times truly heartbreaking. All in all it is a fitting tribute to, as the film states at the beginning, the men on both sides who died in that place.

We Were Soldiers is not for the squeamish. It ranks up there with Saving Private Ryan for realistically showing the brutality of war. I was moved almost beyond description by the ordeal these 390-odd US Army Air Cav soldiers endured at the hands of thousands of Viet Cong troops. It is as close to Hell as one could get on earth--a charnel house of horrors, where death is sudden and swift. Mel Gibson and Sam Elliot lead a group of green recruits into the Valley Of Death on an impossible mission in the early days of our involvement in Vietnam.

Based on actual events in 1965, this was the first major involvement of US troops and North Vietnamese regulars. The writing, directing, and acting are first rate, and the battle scenes are too real for comfort. What really makes the mind reel is that after the slaughter depicted in this film, Mel's character Lt. Col. Hal Moore goes back to the valley of death for more than 200 days. The American dead are listed on 3 East of the Vietnam Memorial Wall. I stood at attention and cried when the names of the fallen were listed at the end of the film. You will, too.

There are many war movies, but finally there is a decent one about the Vietnam war in stead of World War II.

We were soldiers is a movie about the first American attack on the Vietnamese. A col. rides into battle with his man and they have to encouter several attacks from the enemy. It also tells the story from the wife of the col., who receives the telegrams of the dead soldiers.

There are moments of action which are needed in a war movie. The action-moments are good and the special effects look real. There are also moments of drama, so the movie does not have full action only, which is good to stay concentrated. But the drama does not hurt the movie, because there's not to many of it.

Overall it's a movie which keeps your focus to the last minute. It's not the best war movie ever, but you should certainly see it. Not only because of the very good acting of Mel Gibson.