Hot Off The Rack 10.14.02: We Were Soldiers Posted by Miss Galatea on 10.14.2002
A brutal as all hell war flick, with some equally brutal acting.
Welcome to the debut edition of Hot Off The Rack. - Movie reviews of the hottest video rentals off the rack, written by a chick with a hot rack! Pretty clever, eh? From the top ten video releases to some of my all-time most loved and hated movies, the central premise of HOTR is to provide you with an unadulterated and occasionally scathing analysis of what I believe you should and shouldn't be wasting your dinero on every weekend at the local Blockbuster. So let's get to it now, shall we?
We Were Soldiers Director: Randall Wallace
Starring: Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Chris Klein, Greg Kinnear
Rated: (R) Graphic Violence, Adult Language
Paramount Home Video, 2002, 137 Minutes
Overview
Based on the book "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young", the movie is set in 1965 where Lt. Col Hal Moore (played by the always handsome Mel Gibson) is Commander of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry during the Vietnam War.
Coincidently, this was the same regiment that was led by George Armstrong Custer (of Little Big Horn fame), however, although mentioned in passing over the course of two plus hours, the writers and director failed to make the relevance of such a fact comprehensible. In fact, it’s a wonder, through the mesh of body parts, explosions, shooting, and muddled dialog, that any semblance of a plot could be grasped out of this film. Can you guess where this review is headed?
What I Didn’t Like
Right out of the gate, I have to say this movie was trying so hard to be the Tom Hank’s heart-wrenching and often visually disturbing drama Saving Private Ryan (1998) and, good lord, it really, really wasn’t. We Were Soldiers did do a decent job of displaying the brutality and viciousness of war, but it so vastly lacked the comprehension and flow of dramatic storytelling, that they might as well have called the film "We Were Some Guys". Starting from the opening credits and ending with the closing image I got the sense that the only director’s instruction was "I want lots of running around, confusion, getting dirty, and plenty of violence." No story, no content, nothing. Literally, it felt like a complete sequence of "Blood. Unintelligible dialog. Blood and body parts. More Unintelligible dialog. More blood and body parts with screaming."
The more I think about it, the more I realize how much I disliked We Were Soldiers.
Between the constant switch from the U.S. to the North Vietnamese sides of the conflict, half the time I didn't know what was going on, where the hell they were and who the hell was and wasn’t dead at any given time. In fact, the character development for the men on the battlefield, other than that for Gibson, was so poor I was completely un-invested in the fate of those in moments of heroics or tragedy. Instead of reacting to the pursuing drama, my thoughts were quickly subdued with questions like "What was the name of that guy who was just killed and is he the same guy that was with that other guy that was trapped on that hill, wherever that was?"
On the home front, Madeleine Stowe (Last Of The Mohicans) and Keri Russell (that chick from Felicity) play the wives of the Mel and Chris Klein (American Pie) characters, stuck on the base waiting for either the dreaded telegram or for their men to return. After a get-to-know-you get-together with the other ladies on the base, they find themselves delivering "I regret to inform you..." letters door to door like Grim Reaper Avon Ladies. Even these potentially heart-tugging events were ruined by the drone-like acting from Stowe, who’s overly-abundant, collagen-injected lips achieved some Olympic-sized scene stealing, while Russell wasn‘t much better, but at the very least showed some trace amount of emotion when the situation warranted.
What I Did Like
No really, there were actually a few aspects of the film that I did like... and I did say a few. The only likable characters in this film were those played by Gibson, Kinnear, and Pepper, but for probably all the wrong reasons. As almost a matter of principal, I tend to be drawn to anyone Gibson plays, and not simply for wooed-female reasons. As one of my favorite actors, Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets) was also a favorite of mine, although his character here, while heroic, was rather nondescript. As for Barry Pepper, who portrayed UPI reporter Joe Galloway, his performances in The Green Mile, and that other, less generic war movie with Tom Hanks I mentioned earlier, managed to carry him to a passing grade in this one as well. In addition to the familiar characters and stars, I also appreciated the attempt, however weak and unnecessary, to show the conflict from the North Vietnamese point of view. Presenting our enemy as a husband, father, boyfriend, or brother, rather than merely an evil, gun-toting thug was a welcome break from the norm.
The 411
It has all the star power and a foundation based on an intriguing piece of history to boot, but in the end this was, for all intents and purposes, a brutal as all hell war flick, with some equally brutal acting (sans Gibson), directing, and overall script. I’m usually a sucker for the "based on a true story" movies, but this was just embarrassingly bad. Not since the dreadfully pleasant Brit-inspired Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow) have I wanted to returned to the video store and demand a refund. That‘s not to say that We Were Soldiers isn’t entirely un-rentable, but if given the choice, I would’ve rather picked up Saving Private Ryan again and saved myself the extra trip back to the video store.
Final Score: 4
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Miss Galatea’s nearly decade-long editorial career has included work with such noted publications as IGN, WOW Magazine, and F4W. For an archive of her work and more, visit her official website at www.missgalatea.com.
