Lt. Col. Hal Moore: Mel Gibson
Julie Moore: Madeline Stowe
Maj. Bruce Candall: Greg Kinnear
Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley: Sam Elliott
2nd Lt. Jack Geoghegan: Chris Klein
Barbara Geoghegan: Kari Russel
Joe Calloway: Berry Pepper
After watching Saving Private Ryan
so long ago (I guess it was only four
years ago) I always compare war movies to it. Why? I try not to but that
movie was so great that I always do. Granted, there aren't that many bad
war movies, but
Saving Private Ryan
raised the bar so high that it's
nearly out of reach. Nearly. We Were Soldiers has bridged the gap
between Vietnam War movie grittyness to World War II movie awesomeness.
Movies based on the Vietnam War are gritty, tell-it-like it is stories
and World War II movies do the same but obviously have a greater appeal.
We Were Soldiers contains the heart, soul, and the overall grittieness
of this period in time and delivers it well.
We Were Soldiers tells the story of the first major battle between
American an Vietnam forces. November 12, 1965 was the date upon which it
occured and what a battle it was. We are first introduced to the
antagonist Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) as he has just transfers to
live on a military base with his family. He's in charge of training his
men for their first attack. 48 minutes into and we're smack dab in the
middle of an all out war. The movie explodes into an hour and a half of
great action which you can tell shares the significance of Braveheart.
With a few twists and gruesome napalm attack scene, this is the best
Vietnam War movie since
Platoon.
Similar in vein to
Black Hawk Down.
since the two share the same nearly
endless battles. This movie pulls it off well with a likeable cast,
unlike Black Hawk Down where I was waiting for it to end. Not a bad
entry from the team that brought us Braveheart.
Into the disc. I don't think I've ever gloated so much about a Paramount
movie. This transfer is easily one of the best from the studio. Unlike
the recent
Orange County
release, pixelization is nowhere to be seen and
blacks are deep. The colors are sharp and bright and dark when they need
to be. There's was some grain though, that I didn't expect but something
tells me it was meant to be there because they should have caught it.
With the grain there, it gives off an old time movie feel similar to
Steven Speilberg touching up Saving Private Ryan to make it look old.
Definitely the best transfer from Paramount.
The sound is presented in great quality as well. Included are English
2.0 and 5.1 tracks as well as French 2.0. Of course with a war movie,
the sound might be the best part and this is no exception. Booming and
loud this would make the neighbors complain. Just watch the scenes where
air support is called in and you'll see what I mean.
But, alas, the disc can't be perfect. Instead of complaining about the
lack of a plethora of extras I'm actually going to praise them.
Paramount has taken the same step as Dreamworks did with the Saving
Private Ryan disc and made sure the picture quality was not hampered. A
featurette and deleted scenes are here, along with a commentary by the
writer and director. In a way, I'm glad they didn't pack it with extras
because the movie wouldn't have looked so good but Paramount is stingy
with extras, not to mention the price.
Overall, We Were Soldiers comes highly recommended for it's great
transfer and awesome sound. It's not a bad movie either. If you want a
movie that will change your perspective on the Vietnam War then this'll
do it for you.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
