On a sidenote, I didn't like 'we were soldiers'.
I should clarify; the combat scenes were very realistic. I didn't know the Vietnamese attack in numbers - always been told they kept away from direct conventional war with Americans. However this was the irst use of choppers so they might not have worked it out yet.
Didn't know that it was so close fighting - firing literally into someone a few feet away. Was it like this?
What i disliked was the entire start. The depiction of Moore is one dimensional, full of clichés and utterly lacking of depth. Its a classical attempt at showing what a good father/human being he is, classical perfect family picture.
Cheesy 'they stick to you because you're the best' comments. Hero standing up under fire while his much better concealed men gets shot to pieces - not a scratch on Mr Hero.
Long sections of the film were mushy and without point. After 30 minutes of the film my sis said 'man, so far this has been a chick flick'.
While the action sequences were memorable and extremely well done, they overdid the 'grittyness'. Put a toejameload of mud ion the soldiers faces - that automatically guarantee that the viewer sees the film as down and dirty. Seems like a cosmetic shortcut to try to achieve the feeling of 'these are battle hardened soldiers on the verge of giving up, near mental exhaustion. 'Platoon' achieved that goal by carefully relying on charcter building rather than makeup and action sequences. What dialogue there is in this film is either to confirm the great love relationship, fear the wives have, direct commands or cheesy one liners. The film doesn't transport one into the lives of the soldiers - they're unknowns dying in random unpredictable ways. I imagine that that was how it was to be a soldier over there, but in a film you want to know the characters - in three dimensions.
But the combat stuff was outstanding. it's in the top 10 for war scenes, along with Band of Brothers, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and other great films.
I can understand why the combat would transport a veteran back into the hell hole. But the character building is sorely lacking and there's a feeble attempt at creating characters using well worn clichés and effects and it falls crashing into the ground.
This review isn't meant to diminish the experiences of the soldiers over there or the emotional trauma suffered by real life heroes (IMHO) like Hangtime and his comrades in arms. It's just about the film, not reality.
Hangtime.
