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
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
One of the best war movies of the past 20 years. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
"Black Hawk Down" was criticized because the characters seemed hard to tell apart. We Were Soldiers doesn't have that problem; in the Hollywood tradition it identifies a few key players, casts them with stars, and follows their stories. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The in-your-face style of We Were Soldiers results in a suspenseful, intense, and exhausting cinematic experience. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
A powerful experience, filled with dazzlingly executed action sequences that generally avoid the rock music and drugged-out conventions of "Apocalypse Now," and even exude a certain core of humanity. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianTed Mahar
The film's soldiers are more the mom-and-apple-pie, God-fearing lads of World War II movies than the cynical grunts of "Platoon" (1986) and "Full Metal Jacket" (1987). Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
You don't really watch the film; you survive it. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
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. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Like the best war movies -- and like martial literature going back to the Iliad -- it balances the dreadful, unassuageable cruelty of warfare and the valor and decency of those who fight. Read full review
80
New Times (L.A.)Robert Wilonsky
It succeeds where its recent predecessor miserably fails because it demands that you suffer the dreadfulness of war from both sides. That might not make it a milestone, but it's a hell of an improvement. Read full review
80
Film ThreatDavid Grove
This is a good film; strong, honest, strikingly photographed (by Dean Semler) and appropriately devastating. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The writer-director bestows honor -- generously, apolitically -- not only on the dead and still living American veterans who fought in Ia Drang, but also on their families, on their Vietnamese adversaries, and on the families of their adversaries too. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
This also is the rare combat movie that deals substantially with mourning widows on the home front. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
We Were Soldiers works. The action is well-staged and realistic. And Gibson is a commanding presence in a role that has more shadings and stature than his usual action heroes.
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
It isn't afraid to genuflect to heroes and heroism and has everything it needs to connect with the resurgence of patriotism after Sept. 11.
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Probably the best thing you can say about We Were Soldiers is that it does justice to an awful conflict. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
A powerful and moving experience -- once it overcomes its clunky, badly written and clichéd first act.
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
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. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
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. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Gibson has the closest thing to a John Wayne part that anyone's played since the Duke himself rode into the sunset, and he plays it damn well. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
It's square, stiff, and in places cheesy; it's also authentically harrowing -- and blood-showered, blood-drowned. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Soldiers is righteously explicit about the damage artillery does to human flesh, and for its part, it proves relentlessly unpleasant. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The battle, expertly shot by Dean Semler, captures the chaos of guerrilla warfare paralleled in "Black Hawk Down" and gives the film a scarring documentary realism. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
If the action is graphic and immediate, other aspects of the movie are inexcusably bad. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
One admires Wallace's intentions while despairing at his execution. Yet as clumsily directed as his film is, it inspires compassion for Moore, his men and their foes. And in that, there is merit. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Some scenes achieve dramatic greatness and emotions that reach to the heart's core. Almost as many have the tinny ring of a badly counterfeited coin. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
We Were Soldiers feels strangely irrelevant -- a well-acted, well-crafted and inconsequential visit to woefully familiar territory. Read full review
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