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Well, lately Hollywood keeps trying to out do itself in long, graphic, war scenes after the success of Saving Private Ryan’s 15 minute opener. We Were Soldiers starring Mel Gibson (What Women Want and The Patriot) managed to fit parallel stories into what seemed like more than an hour-and-a-half of straight war footage. For those of us that enjoy a violent or gory flick, the special effects were pretty kewl with a close range grenade and an up close and personal fireball. The film was based on the novel, We Were Soldiers Once and Young, by retired Colonel Hal Moore (Gibson) and reporter Joseph Galloway (Barry Pepper of The Green Mile) which recall their accounts of this particular battle they fought and witnessed in South Vietnam. The location was known as the Valley of Death. The story begins with the French army crossing the Valley of Death when the Viet Minh ambushed and massacred the group. “If we kill them all, they will stop coming,” was the theory. I guess that theory failed because 10 years later, war was still reigning and the US joined the battle. This is where Col. Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) enters the story as a new officer trainer relocating to a new base to train his new group of officer graduates in air mobility warfare. His first order of business is to make nice with his pilot, Major Bruce ‘Snakeshit’ Crandall (Greg Kinnear of Nurse Betty). Hal incorporates the field cavalry with the pilots because if the pilots know and are friends of the men, then they are more inclined to save their asses when the shit hits the fan. This concept proves to be true. The Colonel brings along his very seasoned cantankerous old Sergeant Major Basil Plumley (Sam Elliott of The Contender) whom is not the warm and fuzzy type, but someone you want to be fighting along side on the battlefield. As the new officers train, we see which ones are born leaders, which ones want to earn medals, and which ones just follow what they are told. This new cavalry that Moore leads is the 7th Cavalry Regiment, which sadly was Custard’s regiment too. Moore, a strong and studious commander, not only has been studying the battle strategy of the Viet Cong, but he now reviews Custard’s Last Stand to learn from his mistakes. It is 1965 and the men must leave for war now. This is where the parallel storylines begins. The men enter battle and the women are now keeping the home front warm, having to be both parents and comfort for each other while living on a military base. So when the telegrams start arriving, we see new levels of courage and heroics through Moore’s wife Julie (Madeleine Stowe of Imposter) and Lt. Jack Geoghegan’s (Chris Klein of Rollerball) wife Barbara (Keri Russell). Just before the men left for war, Geoghegan became a new father of baby girl Camille. He gets an ID bracelet with her name on it, and Moore lets her daddy wear this with his fatigues (not customary Army regulation attire you know). This birth is what prompted the line from the trailers, that being good at one he hopes makes him better at the other in response to Klein’s question about being a good soldier and father. The remainder of the film is an intense three-day battle in the Valley of Death where the US forces are out numbered, out maneuvered, and on the enemies home soil. And when it appeared there was no way out, Plumley so elegantly put it, “Custard was a pussy, you are not Sir,” in response to Mel’s question, “ I wonder what Custard was thinking when he led his troop into an ambush?” The narrator was the real Col. Hal Moore. Randall Wallace wrote the screenplay and directed, We Were Soldiers. He also wrote the screenplay to Pearl Harbor. Also appearing in this movie was Josh Daugherty, Edwin Morrow and Jsu Garcia. Mel was his brilliant self with grace and humor. The look of determination was the same face that led men into battle with his Braveheart character. I sure would have liked a flash of his bare ass like we got in Braveheart, but I’ll take a flawless performance all the same. We Were Soldiers is a 10 all the way baby. At ease.
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:48:10 AM Click Here to get back into frames.
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