I've heard the criticism from a lot of people about how We Were Soldiers packs plenty of cliches within the film. I won't argue that because if you've seen one war movie, you've seen pretty much all of them. I think that anyone that slams this movie for that reason alone is an idiot. What makes each war film unique is in how they tell the story and what the objective is. A lot of war films are usually driven by a rescue mission like Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down. Some war films glorify the violence and others go the opposite way. In this one it was simply to hold the line and keep fighting no matter what the cost at the Battle of Ia Drang. If there is one fault I have with the movie, it's the fact that we never really get to know any of the soldiers themselves. Sure we get a little bit of their personal lives for a couple of them. But for the rest they remain pretty much in the dark.

I also found that one of the more interesting aspect of this film was that it also went out of its way to humanize the opposition. Think about all the other war movies from 15-20 years ago and you realize that it's all one sided....about ramping up patriotism 100% for the American audience. Even though this is definitely in that vein, it doesn't shy away from pointing out that the other side was fighting a war that it didn't want and they too had families they wanted to get back to.

This is definitely worth a Rent if you're into war films like I am. Even though I say it's a Rent, it was good enough for me to Buy this back when the DVD first came out. Mel Gibson does a great job. But it's Sam Elliot that steals every scene he is in. Keep an eye out for Barry Pepper as a photojournalist on the battlefield. He has been through the trenches before as he was also in Saving Private Ryan.