Title: What happens when...people try to be meaningful.
Review: Mel Gibson and company are soldiers surrounded by overwhelming odds in the Ia Drang Valley during the Vietnam War. Graphically violent film features almost non-stop fighting after the first hour. Technically, the battle scenes are well-choregoraphed, but those sequences never achieve the "you are there" feeling, and the film completely lacks in genuine dramatic power and nail-biting intensity. The character development is second-rate, the symbolism is heavy-handed...This is what happens when...people try to meditate on the meaning of brotherhood. Good message, but poorly executed. This has nothing on Saving Private Ryan or Black Hawk Down.
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