We Were Soldiers [Blu-ray]

Director: Randall Wallace Randall Wallace

Overview

Screenwriter Randall Wallace, a specialist in sweeping historical epics, steps behind the camera for this fact-based Vietnam War drama that reunites him with his Braveheart (1995) star Mel Gibson. Gibson is Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, the same regiment fatefully led by George Armstrong Custer. As part of the Pleiku Campaign of late 1965, Moore is assigned to an action at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Drang Valley, an area that would come to be known as the "The Valley of Death." Moore soon finds himself and his men contained to an area about the size of a football field, surrounded by more than 2,000 enemy troops and engaged in the first major battle of the war. Heroism becomes the order of the day as men like Moore, chopper pilot Bruce Crandall (Greg Kinnear), and Lt. Henry Herrick (Marc Blucas) refuse to yield, in spite of heavy losses of life. The film co-stars Madeleine Stowe, Chris Klein, Keri Russell, and Sam Elliott. We Were Soldiers is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (retired) and UPI reporter Joe Galloway (played in the film by Barry Pepper).

Product Details

Release Date:	08/29/2017
UPC:	0032429258588
Original Release:	2002
Rating:	R
Source:	PARAMOUNT
Language:	English
Time:	2:18:00
Sales rank:	9,973

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mel Gibson	Lt. Col. Moore
Madeleine Stowe	Julie,Actor
Sam Elliott	Plumley
Greg Kinnear	Crandall
Chris Klein	Geoghegan
Barry Pepper	Galloway
Keri Russell	Barbara
Ryan Hurst	Savage
Jsu Garcia	Nadal
Marc Blucas	Herrick
Blake Heron	Bungum
Josh Daugherty	Ouellette
Edwin Morrow	Godboldt
Robert Bagnell	Hastings
Don Duong	Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu Ahn
Mike White	SFC Haffner
Mark McCracken	Ed `Too Tall' Freeman
Tim Abell	Army Intel Officer
Vincent Agnell	Doc Carrara
Dan Beene	Cab Driver
Luke Benward	David Moore
Danny Boyer	Sergeant
Sean Bunch	Trooper No. 4
Brian Carpenter	Robert McNamara
Doug C. Cook	Capt. Ray Lefebvre
Alan Dale	Westmoreland
Cliff Fleming	Mills
Brendan Ford	Jump Coordinator
Michael Giordani	French Lieutenant
Clark Gregg	Capt. Metsker
Jim Grimshaw	Gen. Kinnard
Jon Hamm	Capt. Dillon
Desmond Harrington	Beck
Joseph Hieu	NVA Major
Vien Hong	Mr. Nik
Nicholas Hosking	French Captain
Jonathan Parks Jordan	White Private
Derrell Keith Lester	Black Private
Simba Khali	Alma Givens
Shepard Koster	Reporter No. 1
Matthew Lang	Lt. John Arrington
Maia Lien	Army Wife
Kate Lombardi	Reporter No. 2
Erik MacArthur	Adams
Matt Mangum	Private Soprano
Joshua McLaurin	Greg Moore
Sloane Momsen	Cecile Moore,Little Julie Moore
Steven Nelson	Charlie Lose
Randy Oglesby	Lt. Col. List
Jay Powell	Sergeant
Lee Reynolds	Chopper Crew
John Paul Rice	Pvt. John Perry
Daniel Roebuck	Medivak C.O.
Forry Smith	Sgt. Palmer
Patrick St. Esprit	General No. 2
Keith Szarabajka	Diplomatic Spook
Brian Tee	Nakayama
Keni Thomas	Sergeant
Michael Tomlinson	Col. Brown
Billinjer C. Tran	Viet Minh St.,NVA Prisoner
Dylan Walsh	Capt. Edwards
Devon Werkheiser	Steve Moore
Bellamy Young	Cathy Metsker
Vincent Angell	Capt. Robert 'Doc' Carrera
Phong Atwood Vo	Voices,North Vietnamese Soldier - South Vietnamese and vVillager
Denis Leary	Actor
Nick Glennie-Smith	Composer

Technical Credits

Randall Wallace

Randall Wallace	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Stan Blackwell	Special Effects
Bruce Davey	Producer
David Goldberg	Special Effects
Allan Graf	Stunts
Amanda Mackey Johnson	Casting
Jim Lemley	Executive Producer,Producer
Paul J. Lombardi	Special Effects
Stephen McEveety	Producer
Cathy Sandrich Gelfond	Casting
Arne Schmidt	Executive Producer,Producer
Stephen Zapotoczny	Producer
Lon Bender	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Max Daniels	Stunts
Eveleen Bandy	Producer
William Hoy	Producer
Digital Domain	Special Effects
Mario Roberts	Stunts
Mark Stoeckinger	Sound/Sound Designer
Geoffrey Rubay	Sound/Sound Designer
Tim Cooney	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

An unapologetically patriotic movie that found post-9/11 audiences receptive, We Were Soldiers revisits American involvement in Vietnam and focuses on one particularly harrowing engagement. Based on the memoir by retired army officer Harold G. Moore and war correspondent Joseph Galloway, this engrossing, highly emotional film re-creates the 1965 battle that pitted the airborne division of the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry against deeply entrenched Vietnamese in an unpopulated area that became known as "the valley of death." Mel Gibson portrays Moore as a dedicated career officer with a paternal devotion to the men under his command. Ferried by helicopter to the battle zone, Moore, grizzled Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley (an amusingly deadpan Sam Elliott), and his inexperienced young soldiers attempt to seize disputed ground but are immediately besieged by all-but-invisible enemy troops. Randall Wallace, who previously collaborated with Gibson on Braveheart, makes his initial foray into screen directing with no hint of uncertainty; his staging of the siege, while hewing closely to the historical record, is fiercely visceral and almost unendurably suspenseful. He’s equally facile in dramatizing the tension and anguish felt by the soldiers’ wives, waiting at their Stateside homes for news but dreading its arrival. Madeleine Stowe is appropriately stoic as Moore’s capable mate, who takes it upon herself to personally notify the camp spouses of their husbands’ deaths in battle. Chris Klein shows his mature side as a promising young officer who serves with distinction in his first major campaign, and Barry Pepper registers strongly as Galloway, a war correspondent overwhelmed by the carnage. Greg Kinnear delivers what may be his finest performance to date as the tireless helicopter pilot who shuttles dead and wounded soldiers from the battleground back to the base. Wallace depicts Moore and his men with an admiration bordering on reverence, but he also portrays the Vietnamese with respect and dignity. He refrains from editorializing about the U.S. role in the conflict, choosing instead to dramatize the American soldiers’ loyalty to each other. A moving testament to the futility -- and absurdity -- of war, We Were Soldiers pays tribute to those who fight so gallantly and sacrifice so much. On the DVD, Wallace provides commentary for both the full-length film and ten deleted scenes; he also appears in a behind-the-scenes featurette, "Getting It Right."