65
Metascore
37 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Washington PostStephen HunterWashington PostStephen HunterYou don't really watch the film; you survive it.
- 80Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonGibson 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.
- 70NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenA powerful and moving experience -- once it overcomes its clunky, badly written and clichéd first act.
- 70Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranManages 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.
- 70SalonStephanie ZacharekSalonStephanie ZacharekIsn'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.
- 63The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyIf the action is graphic and immediate, other aspects of the movie are inexcusably bad.
- 50The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyYet 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]
- 50Chicago ReaderLisa AlspectorChicago ReaderLisa AlspectorThough 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.
- 38New York PostJonathan ForemanNew York PostJonathan ForemanIt's a shame that the book "We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young" fell into the hands of writer-director Randall Wallace ("Braveheart"), a filmmaker who wouldn't recognize subtlety and understatement if they were to attack him in the street.
- 25Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittRarely have Gibson's tears seemed more fictional than in this supposedly authentic account of a historical event that's far too tragic to merit such superficial treatment.