‎We Were Soldiers (2002) directed by Randall Wallace • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

We Were Soldiers

2002 Directed by Randall Wallace

400 U.S paratroopers. 4,000 Vietnamese soldiers. 12,000 miles away from home. 1 man led them into battle.

The story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War and the soldiers on both sides that fought it.

Mel Gibson Greg Kinnear Madeleine Stowe Sam Elliott Chris Klein Keri Russell Barry Pepper Clark Gregg Marc Blucas Jsu Garcia Robert Bagnell Blake Heron Josh Daugherty Jon Hamm Dylan Walsh Erik MacArthur Mark McCracken Desmond Harrington Đơn Dương Ryan Hurst Brian Tee Sloane Momsen Bellamy Young Simbi Khali Jim Grimshaw Forry Smith Steven Nelson Vincent Angell Michael Tomlinson Show All…

Alternative Titles

越战忠魂, 我们曾是士兵, 梅爾吉勃遜—勇士們, Fuimos soldados, Бяхме войници, Ήμασταν κάποτε στρατιώτες, Bili smo vojnici, Once and Forever, Mes buvome kariai, Fomos Soldados..., Am fost cîndva soldati... si tineri, Bir zamanlar askerdik, Fuimos Heroes

action war history

138 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Tarryn-tino ★★★★★ 1

Why this film is one of my favourites:

-Mel Gibson
-The raw emotion that is portrayed
-Sam Elliott, seriously his lines are amazing
-The all-star cast
-The pyrotechnics
-The brutal story

We Were Soldiers will always be one of my favourite war films, I can't even give a detailed reason, beyond what I gave above above, I have just always loved it. I love a film that can make me feel as much emotion as this one does, even after a dozen or so watches.
Review by Joe Zappulla

Movie #3 of my I’m Gonna Watch Every Jon Hamm Movie But Only The Scenes That Jon Hamm’s In series.

This was probably the least enjoyable in my Jon Hamm series yet. It was very difficult to tell when Jon Hamm was in a scene as the screenplay was not available online, and it was hard to make out the non Mel Gibson characters amid the chaos of combat.

Jon Hamm plays Capt. Matt Dillon, who's name is only said once when Mel Gibson orders him to alert some other squad while they are getting shot at. Hamm gets the juicy line of barking army mumbo jumbo like charlie and bravo and all that fun stuff. He performs it as…
Review by Sean Cordy ★★★½ 1

I went in with the skepticism of it being purely jingoistic and xenophobic. At first I seemed to be correct - that this was a film that would inspire many a generation to be soldiers, and lead children across playgrounds to play "War". Maybe there's some oversight here, but its execution and political structure went hand-in-hand to provide a insightful look into war.

War films are always a touchy topic - at their disposal they can debate the morality of war, as well as the politics, and criticize or praise what was done (as a means to silence the opposition.) This is especially true of Vietnam War films, as there was a plethora of things done "wrong" politically and morally,…
Review by ZombAid ★★½

Well, at least in this Movie America won the Vietnam-War...

This movie is so trenched in patriotism, that it's sickening, with false bravado and a beyond senseless fight for nothing. Not one criticism about the War and America's involvement in said combat.
And of course, Mel comes home...

By the way: Who thought, that the German Title We Were Heroes was the right call? Who was a hero here? I just saw stupid people, going to a war where nobody really saw any positive about this conflict.
58'000 people died for the most stupid war, America has yet entered.
Review by Jacob Olsen ½ 7

I'm sorry, couldn't take this overly patriotic attempt at glorifying the Vietnam war and the Americans who fought in it. Stopped watching after 35 minutes.
Review by Matt ★★★★

"He died keeping my promise."

We Were Soldiers is a very underrated and ignored war film of the 21st century.

Does it have some cliches and formulatic story structure? Yes. But what makes this film so great is that is executes it's cliches in an emotional, realistic and non-cliche manner.

Mel Gibson's performance is simply one of his best and the rest of the cast are respectable in their roles. And solid kid acting is always a plus.

This movie has great internal and emotional emotion that really got to me and since it's the Fourth of July, it really made me feel respect for the soldiers at war.

Randall Wallace, as the director, really puts you into the film…

Recent reviews

Review by Roland Turambar ★★★★★

Also bis auf den extremen Pathos und der Heldenverehrung ein super Film. Trotz der anschaulichen und trastischen Bilder ist das kein Antikriegsfilm.
Review by Jackson H.

About as by-the-book and infantryman-centric as its title implies. Despite being based on a soldier's memoirs, very little of it feels distinctive. I suppose it (ironically) humanizes the Vietnamese soldiers more than its staunchly anti-war cousins (e.g., Full Metal Jacket, Platoon) typically do? Just imagine a non-autuerist Vietnam War film, add a layer of patriotic sentimentality, and you've probably got a good idea of what to expect. The biggest surprise is how ostentatiously Catholic Mel Gibson's character is.
Review by cryers ★★★½

The best historical film Mel Gibson has been in even though there isn't much competition. Aside from the part where a adult character in 1960s america doesn't know what racism is, this film is lovingly accurate and unbias in it's depiction of the Vietnam war
Review by herbiederbie ★★★½

This movie does sooo many things right and portrays one of the most morally complicated wars in US history nicely as it the film let's both the Americans and the Viet Cong have moral compasses and compassion and backstories. It also displays perfectly how when the Americans "won" a battle, the Viet Cong just reclaimed when the Americans left. The only thing that takes me out of the movie is the overly patriotic scenes of Mel Gibson's family after a while they just get ridiculous and it brings down the overall quality of the movie.
Review by ChaosWalking ★★★★★

Very gruesome.
Very emotional.
Very good movie.
Review by Waigo ★★★

Ok
Review by Yuls ★★★

There's a certain amount of great imagery, music and acting, but it's a fairly dull and bland experience, particularly when it comes to war movies.
Review by Mallop ½

How anyone can root for the characters in this movie is beyond me, but I guess you can chalk that up to the American education system. There’s actually a scene where the main character’s daughter asks him “Daddy, what’s war?” and he responds “Well, sweety, it’s when people of another country try to kill guys like me and my friends.” Hey maybe they wouldn’t try to kill you if you didn’t invade their country and massacre innocent civilians you fucking obsolete bafoon.
Review by Burdett ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

This film portrays the story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War, and the soldiers on both sides that fought it, while their wives wait nervously and anxiously at home for the good news or the bad news.

An all action film that will still leave your heart pounding with distress.......