Synopsis
The story of the first major battle of the American phase of the Vietnam War and the soldiers on both sides that fought it.
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Cast
- Mel GibsonLt. Col. Hal Moore
- Greg KinnearMaj. Bruce 'Snake' Crandall
- Madeleine StoweJulie Moore
- Sam ElliottSgt. Maj. Basil Plumley
- Chris Klein2nd Lt. Jack Geoghegan
- Keri RussellBarbara Geoghegan
- Barry PepperJoe Galloway
- Clark GreggCapt. Tom Metsker
- Marc Blucas2nd Lt. Henry Herrick
- Jsu GarciaCapt. Tony Nadal
Recommendations
- 80
Washington Post
You don't really watch the film; you survive it. - 80
Washington Post
Gibson may get top billing, but it's Sam Elliott who steals all the scenes. As Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley, a man who fires with his own .45 revolver rather than the standard M-16 rifles, he's full of hilariously colorful comments. - 70
Newsweek
A powerful and moving experience -- once it overcomes its clunky, badly written and clichéd first act. - 70
Los Angeles Times
Manages to evoke a complex series of reactions. It both frustrates with its unrelenting sentimentality and impresses with the overwhelming physicality of its combat sequences. These in turn are so powerful they take on a life of their own, sending a message that is probably quite opposite to the one the filmmakers intended. - 70
Salon
Isn't a great movie; I'd say it's barely a good one. But it's a war movie that at least acknowledges the distinction between macho and masculinity, always putting the dignity of the latter over the bluster of the former. - 63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
If the action is graphic and immediate, other aspects of the movie are inexcusably bad. - 50
The New Yorker
Yet as art this revisionist movie, grimly effective as some of it is, doesn't hold a candle to the remarkable cycle of pictures in the late seventies and the eighties which captured the discordant character of a tragic war. [11 Mar 2002, p. 92] - 50
Chicago Reader
Though the questionable motives and bad planning of offscreen characters who far outrank Gibson make it difficult to take at face value one soldier's last words -- "I'm glad I could die for my country" -- some viewers will, which may be as the filmmakers intended.
