2002 - WE WERE SOLDIERS, less then epic Vietnam war movie

Mel Gibson and the writer/director Randall Wallace, attempt to tell a true life Vietnam War story.  Mel's the Colonel with his men trapped behind enemy lines who apparently is a devote Catholic.  One minute he's praying on the battlefield the next minute he's mowing down the godless North Vietnamese, what a guy.

This film wants to be a cross between Blackhawk Down and Saving Private Ryan, but the storytelling skill just isn't here.  The film just plods along with lots of bloody violence and killing as it attempts to make some sort of statement about the futility and glory of war, that "comrades in arms" stuff. There is a solemn narration by a reporter on the battlefield who will turn around and write a a book about Colonel Mel and his boys.  This is just another cliche, which can be traced back to the old World War II film, The Story Of GI Joe. 

For all the issues with Gettysburg and The Longest Day, at least those films manage to give the viewer a sense of the epic scope of the war and the battles they were dramatizing.  

138 bloody minutes.