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 enlarge | Director: Randall Wallace
Actors: Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Chris Klein
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $12.98
Buy Used: $2.20
You Save: $10.78 (83%)
New (65) Used (86) Collectible (2) from $2.20
Avg. Customer Rating:  419 reviews
Sales Rank: 2777
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Thx, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 138
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.2
MPN: 097363400240
ISBN: 0792182103
UPC: 097363400240
EAN: 9780792182108
ASIN: B000068TPN
Theatrical Release Date: March 1, 2002
Release Date: August 20, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Guaranteed to play. Normal case wear with stickers, very slight scratches. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The New Yorker review gets it completely wrong January 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The reviewer for the New Yorker really exposes his bias. This event takes place in 1965, not 1968-69. there is a big difference in that fact. we had just escalated troop levels there, it was early in the war, morale was high and the Army felt it was vastly superior to the NVA and VC. We had not experienced the attrition associated with the long slog Vietnam would soon become. If you really want to get to the heart of the matter, watch the deleted scenes on the DVD- particularly the last deletion where Moore meets Westmoreland and McNamara in Saigon. They are both elated, ecstatic about the success of the battle- the casualty numbers are astoundingly favorable to the US, and they smell a quick victory. Moore nervously tells them they are seeing it wrongly, that the NVA were willing to keep coming at them regardless of the casualty rate...that they wouldn't quit until the last man. It was quite prophetic. The director decided to cut the scene because he didn't want to politicize the movie, which was commendable. The tragedy back at Benning, where an unprepared army delivers casualty notification telegrams by yellow cab, and a horrified Julia Moore decides to deliver the rapidly mounting death notices herself, is as poignant as it gets in a movie.......If you want to experience the flip side of the war, where hopelessness and lack of conviction have taken hold of the soldiers stuck there, well then Platoon and Apocolypse Now tell that tale.
Real, and harsh.... January 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
No matter what anyone says about Mel Gibson's real life, he knows how to make a movie that moves you. And is real. And holds no punches.
Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, Apocalypto, all are REAL life, and he films them true, emotional, and as bloody as the times they portray.
All the details can be found on other reviews...the dates, the names. I only want to review the emotions of this movie, and its quality. Because it is the emotions of Vietnam, that we carry to this day.
When I was 17, I had already had my first two induction `interviews'. I was 2 weeks from being inducted. I had scored 99% on the tests and was told I was going to be a 2nd Lt., which meant an immediate detail to the front line as cannon fodder. My neighbor, Steve Buck, came home from Vietnam after 4 years. He was there as an adviser, and he was a Seal. Steve was involved some of the very first Viet/American confrontations. His stories were of blood and horror, and of futility. He lived across the street from my family, and we heard his nightmare screams in the middle of the night. His nightmares were horrible. As a young man who abhorred war, I tried to ask him what awaited me. The talks were usually accompanied by his bursting into tears for the friends he lost. His answers were about the closeness of his fellow grunts, the BOND between soldiers, that they were closer than family, and the ideal that they lived together or died together, at least in the beginning. Later, it became just the desire to survive.
This film shows the first confrontations. When the idealism of One Unit to live or die existed.;..when commanders were the father to the grunts. It also shows the men as fathers, especially Gibson's scenes with his family before he is sent to fight.
Gibson shows that early war dedication as Lt Hal Moore, in charge of troops surrounded by the enemy (a la `The 300'). He is repeatedly told to abandon his troops, but refuses. Instead of the usual Pretty Boy role, Gibson is hard and gritty, as he was in Braveheart. It is Lt. Moore's dedication to his men that is the whole point of this film.
Greg Kinnear shows his acting skills as the helicopter pilot who refuses to abandon the trapped squad. Anyone who doubts Kinnear can carry a role must see this film. The empathy he shows for the ground troops is almost overwhelming,
The soundtrack is moving. the cinematography is exact, and the brutality is not skirted. The color is artfully washed during the battle scenes to show the darkness of battle and death. But at the same time, the blood is scarlet to highlight the pain and horror.
If you are into war movies, I advice this film, as well as `Saving Private Ryan', and `Full Metal Jacket'. These films deal with the emotions of war.
Fantastic Movie January 13, 2008
This is a very well done movie...One of the best and most accuate depictions of the eal begining of the Fight in Viet Nam......V
Very good movie! December 29, 2007
It's a very good movie about the first major battle of U. S. troops in the Vietnam war. It's a little overacted at times but overall a good film and I would recommend it.
 good movie December 26, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
while this was an excellent movie the blue ray was not as dynamic as i had hoped for. this is still a movie that is well worth watching, just not as clear as many of my other blue ray movies
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