Sunday, February 13, 2005

We took a look at We Were Soldiers. If you want a few choice examples of really ham-handed expository writing, watch the first twenty minutes of this. It starts promisingly enough with a Vietnamese ambush of a French patrol. But then it's into a walk'n'talk expo scene between two officers we never see again where we hear about who Mel Gibson's character is and what he's supposed to do. Then we get to hear a little more about Mel Gibson's character from some people watching him move in. Expo, expo, expo. Most of it unnecessary. Do we really need to hear what a helicopter's supposed to do in warfare? Is there anyone who doesn't know that the point of having choppers is so you can fly troops into battle and out again? Or if there is, does it take more than an offhanded reference?

The opening could have been so much richer, but it's clumsily written all the way through. We stopped watching it before they ever got in country.

Now Lisa feels much, much better about Gone to Soldiers.

9:57 PM

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