We Were Soldiers
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: March 1, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
9
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
While the movie is dreadfully clumsy or sentimental around the edges, there's no denying the strength of Mr. Gibson's performance or the power of the savage combat, a 90-minute sequence that's even more graphic than the horrific firefight in Somalia in "Black Hawk Down."
60
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Leaves all the real risks to the young warriors at Ia Drang and collects easy dividends on their bravery. In the end, it honors them by paying tribute to itself. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Fitfully effective as a battle movie, and Mel Gibson does his rugged best to take center stage without seeming to. But the movie is self-righteous in a way that's frequently unseemly. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid Denby
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 ReaderLisa Alspector
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. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie never generates the authority it needs to be all that it can be. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Ultimately, though, We Were Soldiers fails to bring as much to the table as it at first seems it might. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Who these brave men were and why they fought disappears under the usual clichés, while the astounding acts of courage that occurred at Ia Drang are lost to the dust and din. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
It was a hellish encounter, as well as a portent of the 10 years to come, and as such deserves far better than Mel Gibson's glower and writer-director Randall Wallace's guns-and-Moses platitudes. Read full review
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