March 2, 2002 -- There have been relatively few movies made about the Vietnam War, compared to World War II, but "We Were Soldiers" is one of that select few that deals with this painful subject, and does it with devastating power.

Based on the book "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young" this film explores the Vietnam war in a number of different ways, and it views it from angles that are different than most war films. The book was written by Joe Galloway (played in the movie by Barry Pepper of "Saving Private Ryan") and Hal Moore (played in the movie by Mel Gibson of "What Women Want"). The story, based on actual events, takes place early in the American involvement in the war, before there was massive opposition to the war in the U.S. It is not about politics, however, but about the experience of war. It also delves into the lives of the wives and families of soldiers more than most such films do.

The film centers on a pivotal battle at a place called Landing Zone X-ray in which the North Vietnam Army forces try to massacre American forces. By doing so, they hope to dishearten America's leaders enough to withdraw from the war. Moore leads an air cavalry force against what is thought to be a small force of Viet Cong at LZ X-ray. Moore suspects it is an ambush and it is, but he has to follow orders, so he cannot avoid the fight. The battle is much like the ambush that General Custer ran into at the Little Big Horn. Moore was not happy when he found out his air cavalry unit had been renamed the Seventh Cavalry shortly before the battle, the same number as Custer's cavalry unit. The similarity is even more evident when a platoon is surrounded and cut off from the rest of the force after foolishly pursuing a fleeing enemy soldier. The ambush does not bode well. Moore is also a student of military history and he knows what happened to the French when they fought the same foe.

Moore's right-hand man is the reliable, craggy Sergeant-Major Basil Plumley (played by Sam Elliott of "The Contender"). Plumley's sour demeanor is made into a running joke, and a very funny one, early in the film. One of the young soldiers that Moore relies on is Lt. Jack Geoghegan (Chris Klein of "American Pie 2"). He also relies on his crack helicopter pilot, Major Bruce 'Snakeshit' Crandall (Greg Kinnear of "Nurse Betty"). Soon after the troops start landing at LZ X-ray, one platoon gets cut off from the rest of the force, Moore's troops are pinned down at the landing zone, and everything pretty much goes to hell from there. The battle ends up as a fight for survival.

The battle scenes are set up expertly by the combat training scenes early in the film, along with Moore's research into the tactics of the Viet Cong and the French. There are also discussions about the overall military situation in Vietnam and the Air Cavalry, which was newly-formed at the time. Military history can be as dry as dust, but one of the major accomplishments of this film is to make the subject interesting. Director Randall Wallace (who wrote "Pearl Harbor") also does a great job of giving the viewer an understanding of the layout of the battlefield and the relative positions of the forces. The story doesn't just focus on the Americans, either, there is considerable attention given the North Vietnamese. There is even a scene early in the movie showing a battle between the North Vietnamese and the French. There is more discussion on this below in the spoiler section.

The visual effects used in the battle are powerful, but not quite as good as those in "Saving Private Ryan" or "Black Hawk Down." The real strength of this movie is character development. We really get to know some of these soldiers and their families in a way that goes beyond most war films. That gives the film additional emotional impact. Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe of "The General's Daughter," who plays his wife, Julie, Barry Pepper of "Saving Private Ryan," who plays Joe Galloway, a United Press International reporter, and Greg Kinnear all turn in excellent performances. Sam Elliott also does a fine job. It is shameful, really, the way some films portray journalists (as in "Natural Born Killers"). This film gets it right. It helps to have a reporter write the book on which the film is based. This story also shows that reporters sometimes have to become soldiers in order to protect themselves.

There are also actual positive depictions of Christians in this film, something almost unheard of these days. For that reason alone, some will pan this film. Others will pan it because it hints of patriotism, others because it isn't cynical enough. Not me. I find these things very refreshing after all the crap I've seen coming out of Hollywood in the last few years. In addition to an excellent screenplay by Randall Wallace (who also directs), the cinematography by Dean Semler ("Heartbreakers") and the musical score by Nick Glennie-Smith ("The Man in the Iron Mask") are also top notch. I'm giving this film my highest rating, an A.

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Although the U.S. forces "won" the battle, it was clearly depicted as a hollow victory at best. The movie hints that if the Americans had been massacred, as was the North Vietnamese plan, American involvement in the war may have ended much sooner than it did. The North Vietnamese commander says as much near the end of the movie. His comments mirror those attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto when he realized his attack on Pearl Harbor was a hollow victory. This, plus the time the movie spends on a young North Vietnamese soldier and his family, clearly indicates this is not a blindly patriotic movie, although others will undoubtedly characterize it as such. There is some balance in its depiction of the war, more so than most war movies.