We Were Soldiers Critic Reviews

One of the best war movies of the past 20 years.Read the full review

"Black Hawk Down" was criticized because the characters seemed hard to tell apart. We Were Soldiers doesn't have that problem; in the Hollywood tradition it identifies a few key players, casts them with stars, and follows their stories.Read the full review

The in-your-face style of We Were Soldiers results in a suspenseful, intense, and exhausting cinematic experience.Read the full review

Like the best war movies -- and like martial literature going back to the Iliad -- it balances the dreadful, unassuageable cruelty of warfare and the valor and decency of those who fight.Read the full review

Gibson may get top billing, but it's Sam Elliott who steals all the scenes. As Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley, a man who fires with his own .45 revolver rather than the standard M-16 rifles, he's full of hilariously colorful comments.Read the full review

You don't really watch the film; you survive it.Read the full review

It isn't afraid to genuflect to heroes and heroism and has everything it needs to connect with the resurgence of patriotism after Sept. 11.Read the full review

This also is the rare combat movie that deals substantially with mourning widows on the home front.Read the full review

The writer-director bestows honor -- generously, apolitically -- not only on the dead and still living American veterans who fought in Ia Drang, but also on their families, on their Vietnamese adversaries, and on the families of their adversaries too.Read the full review