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Forever 'Young'
Beaten to the punch, today we have a script review of We Were Soldiers Once... and Young. We promised World Exclusive, we deliver... Except for the small fact that somewhere else on the net today has reviewed the same script for the first time. Okay, that's cool, because we have a more recent draft. We'll finish up the week with script reviews of Dragonfly, Road to Perdition and The One.
'We Were Soldiers Once...' Script Review
"War is hell. Again? Well that's the premise behind Randall Wallace's We Were Soldiers Once... and Young. I rarely care about the draft of the screenplay I review, but this one is red hot off the press. The script is dated February 6th 2001. It's the closest thing to being actually on the set. (TAKE THAT MORIARTY!)
Lt. Colonel Harold Moore (Mel Gibson) is dangerous madman. We first meet him falling to his death when his first parachute doesn't open. He luckily survives and he's assigned to Fort Benning in order to prepare troops for an upcoming mission, Vietnam. The young recruits are sent through vigorous training and they rally behind Moore. On their first war battle, at the Ia Drang Valley, the odds are against them where Moore leads his 400 men battalion against an enemy five times bigger.
That's a rough premise of the project. It is way bigger than that. Lt. Colonel Moore is a cross between the real-life Mel Gibson (he has five children too), Saving Private Ryan's Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) and Denzel Washington's character in Remember The Titans. The opening training period and his big 'goodbye, we're going to war' speech are literally taken from Remember The Titans. We get the same mumbo-jumbo United We Fight message. One big spoiler about the film has already been released in the trades with the fact that Moore wrote a book about his experience on which the script is based on. So folks, yes, he survives the battle. Basically, it left me trying to figure out who wasn't gonna make it.
The supporting cast is headlined by Greg Kinnear playing Major Bruce Crandall aka Snakes**t. A helicopter pilot who's daredevil techniques helped Moore's battalion during the fight. Very different role for Kinnear who's been playing airhead bastards in his last few flicks(Loser, Nurse Betty and Someone Like You). It's about damn time! The man has shown signed of wanting to stretch his acting skills since As Good As It Gets.
As for the rest of the cast, it goes something like this: there's the gruff second-in-command of Moore, Sgt. Major Basil Plumley (Sam Elliott). The archetypical role Elliott has played in too many movies. We also have Lt. John L. Geoghegan (Chris Klein), one of the strong points of the cast. An interesting character who rises up to the occasion. Why did they choose Klein? The man is awful. I haven't seen him play any good characters on-screen yet. Reporter Joseph L. Galloway (Barry Pepper), the other author of the book, is only a glorified cameo. He doesn't come in the film till really late in the story. He's a sort-of Jeremy Davies in SPR of this story. There's a few good young soldier roles in the story, I don't have any confirmation as to who plays who but I'm sure they will be good.
The women are great. Madeleine Stowe, who's playing Harold's wife Julie, has a great part. She unites the women while the men are at war. Kind of like her husband but only on the other side of the war medal. Keri Russell as Barbara Geoghegan will also be someone to look out for. Felicity has the potential of a break-out with her performance in this project. There's also cutie Taylor Momsen (The Grinch) who plays Cecile, Moore's only daughter. A stubborn child who has a lot of qualities her father has.
I loved Randall Wallace's Pearl Harbor original script. With this project he definitely shows that he is the best historical screenwriter in Hollywood today. I'm only hoping this film won't be lost against the shadows of other war movies of recent and future Hollywood."
(Scoop by 'Agent Payne'.)
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
