We Were Soldiers

“We Were Soldiers” was entertaining, a bit thick with Hollywood sentimentality and at times slow.The main problem was the lack of character development, sure they threw in 3 odd jokes by a grumpy old man but that just wasn’t enough to make it stick. The movie turned good men that died for their country into cheap jokes.

Now, I heard talk about how this movie didn’t do enough to reflect how the country felt about the Viet Nam war, or how war in general isn’t worth fighting. That’s the old “war films should be anti-war” argument. Well, I can understand that, but I’d say enough movies have been made about the anti-war movements of the 60’s to allow some movies to take a more historical less political view of these events.

The battle scene was also a disappointment. It was hard to get a grasp on their situation, exactly where the men were, how broken up, how stretched thin. It was very hard to visualize what was going on. All I know is that a lot of people died and we got to see that in all its gory glory. But I was let down by the lack of information from the battle scene.

All in all I’d say this movie is entertaining but faulty. Worth borrowing from a friend if you want to fast-forward to the battle and skip the forced cries of family members.