DVD Movie Rating for: We Were Soldiers

3 Out Of 5

Movie Plot of: We Were Soldiers

In a place soon to be known as The Valley of Death, in a small clearing called landing zone X-Ray, Lt. Colonel Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) and 400 young fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons, all troopers from an elite American combat division, were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. The ensuing battle was one of the most savage in U.S. history. We Were Soldiers Once...And Young is a tribute to the nobility of those men under fire, their common acts of uncommon valor, and their loyalty to and love for one another.

DVD Production Details of: We Were Soldiers

Director: Randall Wallace

Encoding: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.)
Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Paramount Home Video
DVD Features:
Commentary by director/ Writer Randall Wallace

"Getting It Right" - Behind the scenes of We Were Soldiers

10 deleted scenes with director's commentary

Widescreen anamorphic format

Cast of the movie: We Were Soldiers

• Mel Gibson .... Lt. Col. Hal Moore
• Madeleine Stowe .... Julie Moore
• Greg Kinnear .... Maj. Bruce Crandall
• Sam Elliott .... Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley
• Chris Klein .... 2nd Lt. Jack Geoghegan
• Keri Russell .... Barbara Geoghegan
• Barry Pepper .... Joe Galloway
• Don Duong .... Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu An
• Ryan Hurst .... Sgt. Ernie Savage
• Robert Bagnell .... 1st Lt. Charlie Hastings
• Marc Blucas .... 2nd Lt. Henry Herrick
• Josh Daugherty .... Sp4 Robert Ouellette
• Jsu Garcia .... Capt. Tony Nadal
• Jon Hamm .... Capt. Matt Dillon
• Clark Gregg .... Capt. Tom Metsker

Photo Gallery of the movie: We Were Soldiers

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Reviews of the movie: We Were Soldiers

Based on the book by Lt. Col. Harold Moore (ret.) and journalist Joseph Galloway, We Were Soldiers offers a dignified reminder that the Vietnam War yielded its own crop of American heroes. Departing from Hollywood's typically cynical treatment of the war, writer-director Randall Wallace focuses on the first engagement of American soldiers with the North Vietnamese enemy in November 1965. Moore (played with colorful nuance by Mel Gibson) and nearly 400 inexperienced troopers from the U.S. Air Cavalry were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese Army soldiers, and the film re-creates this brutal firefight with graphic authenticity, while telling the parallel story of grieving army wives back home. While UPI reporter Galloway (Barry Pepper) risks his life to chronicle the battle, Wallace offers a balanced (though somewhat fictionalized) perspective while eliciting laudable performances from an excellent cast. Like the best World War II dramas of the 1940s, We Were Soldiers pays tribute to brave men while avoiding the pitfalls of propaganda.

What WE WERE SOLDIERS lacked in short, was some of the raw emotional drive on Mel Gibson's part. For example-in THE PATRIOT his son dies, so he seeks revenge on the soldier who killed him, and in BRAVEHEART his wife dies. This is the "Righteous anger" that Mel Gibson usually uses on screen in these films, and while I understand WE WERE SOLDIERS is very true to the facts, I think Mel could've done some more emotional driven scenes-HOWEVER... I still really liked the film. There were a few parts that dragged out, but overall WE WERE SOLDIERS is an excellent achievment. For those who say too much violence is in this- I personally think it's important to have violence in truth based war films. Pearl Harbor was a disgrace aiming for a PG-13 rating. WE WERE SOLDIERS honors those dead soldiers who died in battle, by using realistic violence, and I personally think it payed off in the end.

Sometimes by the sets they used in the film you could tell were just being flashed with light for explosion effects at night, but this did not matter to me. I thought this film was excellent and I give it 3.5/5 stars-not as good as Braveheart or the Patriot, but still an excellent war movie-possibly Mel's most graphic too.