Stars:
Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Chris Klein, Keri
Russell, and Barry Pepper
Writer:
Randall Wallace
Based
Upon The Book “We Were Soldiers Once… And Young” By Lt. Gen. Harold G.
Moore (Ret.) And Joseph Calloway
Director:
Randall Wallace
Feature
length: 138 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Audio Commentary By Producer, Writer, And Director Randall
Wallace, Deleted Scenes With Optional Director’s Commentary, “Getting It
Right: Behind-The-Scenes Of We Were Soldiers”
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound EX, and English And French Language
Dolby Surround Sound 2.0
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 19
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound EX And Dolby Surround Sound 2.0
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2002/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Mel
Gibson portrays Lt. Col. Hal Moore, a born leader committed to his troops and
assigned to take the Air Cavalry into the la Drang Valley in Vietnam, which had
been called “The Valley Of Death” by the French Soldiers who had pulled out
of the war that America would assume. In 1965 America had entered into war
against North Vietnam, but the horror and disillusionment had not yet entered
the consciousness of America because the American soldier had not fought a war
such as this before. The outcome of the bloody and costly battle that is
dramatized in the film is ironic in that the results only served to intensify
the resolve of the soldiers on both sides and as a result the film is also a
haunting celebration of the humanity of the soldiers who fought on both side in
the Vietnam War.
Interestingly
I found “We Were Soldiers” to be somewhat similar to the story dramatized in
the film “Black
Hawk Down” because in both tales we are given highly trained
and skilled military forces entering into a situation where they are outnumbered
and overwhelmed and in both cases the survival and human victory is a result of
their military training and the grace of God. “We Were Soldiers” is gritty
and bloody, but in portraying the realism of this battle early in the war, I
feel the viewer is given something quite different from anything they have seen
before. This is neither an incitement of war as is the case with melancholy and
at times operatic Vietnam War dramas such as “Platoon” or “Apocalypse
Now.” Nor is this a patriotic gung ho war picture that one might associate
John Wayne appearing in. “We Were Soldiers” is a film that proclaims the
humanity of the soldiers on both sides and leaves the moral judgment to the
viewer.
Mel
Gibson is absolutely fantastic in this film and I think he is far better than I
think he has been other motion pictures he has starred in over the last few
years and the supporting cast that includes Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Chris
Klein, and Barry Pepper are all excellent. Do not let any prejudgments of other
war dramas that you might have seen in the last few years enter your mind when
you watch this film on DVD, but come to it with as clean a slate you can and I
think the viewers will agree that “We Were Soldiers” is not only one of the
best war dramas to be produced in the last few years, but also one of the most
original films to cover and portray a point of view of American involvement in
the Vietnam War to be produced.
Paramount
Home Entertainment’s DVD edition presents “We Were Soldiers” in a gritty,
but clean anamorphic (2.35:1) aspect ratio. The picture has a grainy quality,
but somehow the image quality is quite bright and still solid despite the
visible grain. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound EX is excellent and
rivals most DTS soundtracks with its three-dimensional sonic and aggressive
qualities. An English and French Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack and English
Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired are encoded on to the
feature as options. The extra features also include both English Captions for
the hearing impaired and French Language Subtitles encoded on to the DVD as
options.
Producer,
Writer, and Director Randall Wallace give a very insightful and even passionate
screen specific feature length audio commentary track that covers everything
from the historical context, personal thoughts on what was going on, the
differences between the film and book, and choreography for the amazingly
coordinated combat scenes among many other things. He also details the various
reasons why he had to cut scenes from the film ranging from the obvious reasons
like pacing to what simply seemed to work better on film despite having shot
what was on page and still stay true to the story he is telling on both an
emotional and historical level. He provides this optional audio commentary for
ten deleted scenes presented in a widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio with English
Dolby Surround Sound. Unfortunately the deleted scenes can only be viewed
individually and not as one reel as an option with scenes running between just
under a minute two over three minutes and collectively equals approximately
nineteen minutes. A twenty-five minute behind-the-scenes featurette with
videotaped interviews and archival footage as well as footage from the
production wraps up the extra features included on this DVD edition.
The interactive menus are well rendered with animated transitions to standard interactive still frames and all are easy to navigate. “We Were Soldiers” is a solid DVD-Video release of a gripping motion picture that will debut on DVD-Video on Tuesday, August 20, 2002 from Paramount Home Entertainment that I can highly recommend to consumers without reservations.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
The Top Ten DVD-Videos Of 2002 As Reviewed At GENRE ONLINE.NET!