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I know what you’re thinking.
Yet another war flick filled with blood and gore.
But you’re wrong. Mel Gibson’s latest flick “We Were Soldiers,” reaches past the men in uniform and finds the fathers, brothers, husbands and sons. It reveals how soldiers dealt with the Vietnam War and does it with passion.
Based on the book by Lt. General Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway, “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young: Ia Drang: The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam.”
Director and screenwriter, Randall Wallace (“Braveheart,” “Pearl Harbor,” “The Man in the Iron Mask”) used the stories of Lt. General Moore and Galloway to recreate Sunday, November 14, 1965. The movie tells the true account of 450 U.S. soldiers who were dropped right in the heart of the North Vietnamese war headquarters which held 2,000 regulars in the Ia Drang Valley. Severely outnumbered, and early in the Vietnam War, this was the first major battle U.S. men were placed in.
The actual battle lasted over a month, from Oct. 23 to Nov. 26, but Wallace chooses to portray the heat of the action.
While this movie is similar to Black Hawk Down, in the sense that U.S. men were basically set up for suicide on foreign soil, it continues past the horror of fighting and into the hearts and homes of the men. I was able to feel the characters, because Wallace brings the audience past the soldier to the daddy.
What better man to portray the lead role but Mel Gibson. As Lt. Colonel Harold Moore, everything that the movie represents is wrapped up in him. He is a father, a husband and a leader. Moore is dedicated to his family, but also to his men. He is soft and hard all in one. Having had the experience and tragedy of battle under his belt has made Moore aware of what is important. His sidekick, SGM Basil Plumley, is the hardass of the group, which no one could play like Sam Elliott.
Greg Kinnear is the amazing and dedicated helicopter pilot, Major Bruce Crandall, who only thought about the men before himself when flying into a maze of gunfire. Chris Klein is the young new father, and soldier, Lt. John Geoghegan, whose wife is Felicity’s own Keri Russell.
However, the strong female presence is none other than the great Lt. Colonel Moore’s wife, Madeline Stowe. Stowe plays the experienced soldier wife to a T. While trying to protect and prepare the new wives for the reality of war, she cannot help but succumb to her own emotions and the fear of never seeing her husband again.
But maybe the most important role is co-author Joseph L. Galloway. Barry Pepper took a 180 from his sniper role in “Saving Private Ryan” and picked up a camera instead.
Pepper is amazing. He is a mere reporter who has never touched a gun, but finds himself right in the center of a battle, with blood-covered men and dying cries surrounding him. Pepper is the majority of the audience, who has no idea what war is or what it feels like.
While this character comes in later in the movie, he is essential to telling the story because he is the connection to the viewers.
In fact, Pepper’s character is the narrator of the film. Voice-overs are heard in the beginning, at parts throughout, but it is not until the end that it is revealed who is speaking. It is the man forced to be a soldier that tells the reality of Vietnam. He is what Wallace is trying to tell the public.
“In the end they did not fight for the flag, the ideas of patriotism, mom and apple pie,” said Wallace. “They fought and died for each other. That’s a story America needs to know about Vietnam. It’s never been told that way.”
The reality of the Vietnam War was that the men only had themselves and not their country on their side. There were no welcoming home parties or warm public greetings. There was no recognition for the horrors the soldiers had witnessed and been a part of. There was only the bond of brotherhood to comfort them. And “We Were Soldiers” tells this amazing story perfectly.
