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Generally favorable reviews - based on 37 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 71 Ratings

  • Starring: Mel Gibson
  • Summary: Based on the best-selling book which details the events of the battle of LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley. (Paramount)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 37
  2. Negative: 2 out of 37
  1. One of the best war movies of the past 20 years.
  2. Reviewed by: David Grove
    80
    This is a good film; strong, honest, strikingly photographed (by Dean Semler) and appropriately devastating.
  3. Fitfully effective as a battle movie, and Mel Gibson does his rugged best to take center stage without seeming to. But the movie is self-righteous in a way that's frequently unseemly.
  4. It's a shame that the book "We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young" fell into the hands of writer-director Randall Wallace ("Braveheart"), a filmmaker who wouldn't recognize subtlety and understatement if they were to attack him in the street.

See all 37 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 43
  2. Negative: 6 out of 43
  1. an amazing story that is my second favorite movie of all time everything was realistic and is the best army movie ever i have watched it like 20 times get it Expand
  2. johnh
    8
    Well done & affecting, without major flaws.
  3. Randall Wallace's "We Were Soldiers" tells the story of the events that surrounded the first major battle of the Vietnam War. The film stars Mel Gibson, Barry Pepper, and Greg Kinnear. First off, the greatest aspect of this film is the really strong lead performances from Mel Gibson - He really shines in this role. Another impressive performance in the film is Sam Elliott's portrayal of Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley. His character has some of the most memorable lines of dialogue in the film which are often crass and caustic. Another very memorable aspect of the film is it's intensely realistic use of special effects. The film uses special effects to simulate what the actual Battle Of Ia Drang was like. Some of the special effects are really engaging and compelling while other special effects are grotesque and grisly, but either way it helps to ground this film in realism. While a lot of the performances in the film were noteworthy, there were some that were. . .not. I'm not going to say which ones fell flat, but there were some moments when actors delivered their lines in a really unsuitable way. These moments don't really take away from the film's overall appeal, but. . .their just bad. All in all, I felt that "We Were Soldiers" was a fairly impressive film that crafted a very believable simulation of the first battle of the Vietnam War. Expand
  4. 2
    Mel Gibson's "we were soldiers" is a rushed, poorly acted and terribly executed war movie. For a screenwriter who wrote Braveheart you would think it would carry over. No sign of it here. Expand

See all 43 User Reviews

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