Notebook Reviews: WE WERE SOLDIERS

Randall Wallace – 2002

Braveheart pair Mel Gibson and Randall Wallace re-team for We Were Soldiers, a true life Vietnam War drama.

Wallace’s film is solid if a little unspectacular and it doesn’t quite deliver the emotional heft that you would expect. It’s almost too reverential to the real events and characters and because of this it lacks edge. Gibson is as good as ever in the lead and the rest of the cast, which includes Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear and Sam Elliott also impress. 

We Were Soldiers is far from being a classic, but it hits the required notes in a well worn genre.