I had [[imdb:0277434 We Were Soldiers]] somewhere in my netflix queue for quite a while, when an Army friend’s praises made me get it now. The praise wasn’t misplaced, this is a really good war movie.

I wasn’t sure what to make of this movie as I was watching it. I felt pulled in different directions at different times, from the tearjerking wives tales, to the horrific napalm injuries, to the cliched “tell my wife…” lines. It is wasy to judge from a safe distance though, and maybe what this film portrays is what our soldier’s and their families went through.

I did appreciate the alternative, albeit limited, viewpoints of the vietnamese soldiers and family’s perspectives. Although I severely resented the overly-wise Vietnamese commander’s aside about how “they’ll view this as their victory”, Wallace did this in Pearl Harbor as well!

I’m not sure if the graphic violence was ment to shock, frighten, or glorify, gbut it mostly frightened me. The scenes of napalmed friendly skin and muscle shedding clean off the bone was pretty horrendous.

Hal Moore, the writer of the book this movie was adapated from, seems to be quite happy with this film. This was the first hollywood war movie where, “they get it”, so that says something I suppose.

Notable performances are given by Mel Gibson as the Lt Col Hal Moore, Barry Pepper as the reporter, and Greg Kinnear as chopper pilot Snake Shit.