| We Were Soldiers | 
Rated: R
Review: 6
Showing @:
Celebration Cinemas
Tues - 1:45, 4:45, 7:50
Fri - 1:45, 4:45, 7:50, 10:50
Sat - 10:50, 1:45, 4:45, 7:50, 10:50
Sun - 1:45, 4:45, 7:50
Gibson soldiers on through war flick
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By Christy Lemire
Associated Press Gibson soldiers on through war flick "We Were Soldiers" is a war movie at war with itself. It's a film about Vietnam with the patriotism of a World War II propaganda flick; it's pre-"Saving Private Ryan" in its gung-ho ideology, yet post-"Saving Private Ryan" in its graphic violence. The juxtaposition is jarring; the two approaches conflict with each other. As Lt. Col. Hal Moore, leading his men into the first major battle of Vietnam, Mel Gibson solemnly promises: "I will be the first to step on the field and I will be the last to step off. And I will leave no one behind ... dead or alive. We will all come home together." Then they do step on the field - and get annihilated, with all the up-close, slow-motion carnage and bloodshed that has marked every war movie since Steven Spielberg set the standard for on-screen violence in 1998. Yet it's hard to fault filmmakers with noble intentions. In adapting the book "We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young," by Moore and former war correspondent Joseph Galloway, writer-director Randall Wallace aims to tell a true story about good men entering a bad war. Many of the men depicted are still alive and spent time talking with the actors portraying them about what happened on Nov. 14, 1965, when 400 U.S. soldiers landed by helicopter in the Ia Drang Valley and found themselves ill-prepared in unfamiliar scrubland, surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. "We Were Soldiers" reunites Gibson with Wallace, who wrote the script for 1995's "Braveheart," which earned Gibson Academy Awards for best picture and best director. And this is the natural follow-up to "Braveheart," and to "The Patriot" two years ago - Gibson, as the fearless leader, heads into battle with loyal men behind him. But this time, his character is a little wiser, a little more sensitive. Comparisons are inevitable to other war movies whose release dates have been moved up to take advantage of our national fervor since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - notably "Black Hawk Down." Both follow the minute-by-minute progress or a specific battle, based on a book's account. But there's a big difference in character development - "We Were Soldiers" actually has some, constituting nearly the film's first half, while "Black Hawk" emphasizes war's chaos and anonymity. And "We Were Soldiers" does something thoroughly that "Black Hawk Down" doesn't even attempt - it shows us the Vietnamese and treats them as brave equals with their own honorable reasons for fighting. Something else it has that "Black Hawk Down" lacks: unabashedly sappy dialogue, which grows increasingly cringeworthy toward the end. While all the actors give earnest, intense performances, the movie belongs to Gibson, in a role John Wayne would have swaggered through 30 years ago. Published 02.28.02 | 
