'3BlackChicks Review...'
WE WERE SOLDIERS (2002)
Rated R; running time 136 minutes
Studios: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Historical Drama
Seen at: Celebration Cinema (Lansing, Michigan)
Official site:
http://www.weweresoldiers.com/ IMDB site:
http://us.imdb.com/Details?0277434 Written by: Randall Wallace (based on the book by
Lt. General Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway)
Directed by: Randall Wallace
Cast: Mel Gibson, Sam Elliott, Greg Kinnear, Barry Pepper, Chris Klein,
Ryan Hurst, Madeleine Stowe, Keri Russell
Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002
Review URL:
http://www.3blackchicks.com/2002reviews/bamswws.html
I struggled all night last night, trying to figure out exactly how to
approach this review. I've decided to take out all the tangential
comments I wrote at first about these post-September 11 times, and place
them into a separate "Tangential comments on these post-September 11
times" sub-page (linked on the 3BC site) instead. My off-topic comments
muddied the issue of how I feel about WE WERE SOLDIERS as a film unto
itself - not a good thing, as I want to be perfectly clear on the issue.
I can't remember the last time I sat through what should've been a
rousing, emotionally-moving depiction of the horrors of war, and came
away not Moved, but instead disgusted at Hollywood's ham-fisted,
indulgent play-acting. Actually, I can remember just fine: THE PATRIOT.
THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**)
WE WERE SOLDIERS is based on a true story about one of the first battles
of the Vietnam War, between the 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th
Cavalry (the same regiment number General Custer led to defeat) and 2000
Vietnamese soldiers, in the Ia Drang Valley: "The Valley Of Death". The
exploits of Lt. Colonel Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) and his men - including
crusty Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley (Sam Elliot), chopper pilot Major Bruce
'Snakeshit' Crandall (Greg Kinnear), and new father Lt. John L.
Geoghegan (Chris Klein) - were chronicled by reporter Joseph Galloway
(Barry Pepper): the first generation Galloway in his family to be an
observer, rather than a participant, in an American war.
THE UPSHOT
I know I'm likely one of few who walked away from this film not moved
one bit by this Hollywood treatment of the horrors of the Vietnam War.
I respect what the actual soldiers went through, and very much
appreciate their sacrifices. I just don't buy anything this movie is
selling. Writer/director Randall Wallace and star Mel Gibson, in my
eyes, share the bulk of the blame for the lack of real feeling, buried
as it was, underneath all the showboating and special effects
blood-n-gore.
Gibson especially irked me, playing Colonel Moore as if he thought he
was still on the set of LETHAL WEAPON 10. There was absolutely no time
during the 136 minutes of this torturously-long movie, that I believed
anything coming from Gibson - other than he's a victim of his own
self-important hype. And that he should never, ever try to affect
another southern drawl again.
I take Randall Wallace to task for a myriad of things, not the least of
which includes his bizarre decision to make everyone except Colonel
Moore (in the field) and Julie Moore (at home) seem like afterthoughts,
as if they were pawns in a grand chess game that Wallace moved around to
make King Mel Gibson and Queen Madeline Stowe stand out all the more.
With the exception of the spiffy Sgt. Maj. Plumley (played by veteran
curmudgeon Sam Elliott) and Sgt. Savage (played convincingly by Ryan
Hurst), the characters were drawn as reactive caricatures with few
distinguishing marks; marionettes on a string for Gibson - and Wallace -
to Emote at.
Wallace continually took what should've been moving visuals, and turned
them into stiffly-choreographed, cardboard scenes. From Wallace's
images of pilot Snakeshit's constant wide-eyed, staring-at-the-horror
closeups, to his amateurish frames of photographer Galloway's Bold!
Statement! of tossing aside his gun and grabbing his camera, to his
giddy overkill use of special effects and CGI in a "ooh, we can make war
look real gross!" fashion, and especially to Mel Gibson's trademark
ability to never get as dirty as the soldiers around him (or was I The
Only One who noticed how very blue his eyes shone in the dark?), Randall
Wallace's directional choices just left me cold.
To be fair, I don't doubt that everyone involved with making WE WERE
SOLDIERS went into it with honorable intentions. But you know what they
say about the road to hell...and for me, it was some serious hell,
having to watch such a badly-staged movie playing at being Important. I
think the real Vietnam veterans deserved much, much better than anything
Wallace and Gibson had to offer. But I'm sure that's Just Me, howling
in the wind by my lonesome.
BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE
Is it unpatriotic to say that I'm sick of war movies? I'd take the heat
that would come from me making such a blasphemous post-September 11
statement - if it meant I don't have to watch another bad rah rah
Hollywood designer war flick again.
WE WERE SOLDIERS rating: yellowlight
Rose "Bams" Cooper
Webchick and Editor,
3BlackChicks Review
Entertainment Reviews With Flava!
Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002
EMAIL:
bams@3blackchicks.comhttp://www.3blackchicks.com/