Everybody's a critic

This week: 'We Were Soldiers'

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"We Were Soldiers" is a well-written and well-scored film about young men and older men who did what was asked of them because they believed in their country and in their battlefield leadership.

Screenwriter, director and co-producer Randall Wallace ("Braveheart") honorably portrays the story of the 1st Battalion of the 7th Calvary, led by Lt. Col. Hal Moore (played by Mel Gibson). The focus is the American soldiers, their families and the enemy in the battle in the La Drang Valley in 1964.

Sam Elliott, as Moore's 1st sergeant, delivers unintended comic relief. Moore's wife, Julie (Madeline Stowe), delivers the news of casualties to wives at home.

This is an important, apolitical film about the early American involvement in Vietnam. It gives better history than most by showing the French involvement before we came on the scene.

It honors soldiers in the way "Pearl Harbor" didn't.

-- Roberta Beach, nurse