Mel Gibson's soldiers will win your sympathies, but that may be all. This uneven adaptation of the book "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young," (originally written by Lt. General Harold G. Moore and war correspondent Joseph L. Galloway) succeeds in conveying the horrors of war, the good intentions of soldiers, but little more.

Lt. Col. Moore (Mel) spends the first half of the film training a small battalion of green young men; then leads them into the first real battle between Americans and the N. Vietnamese in the second half. Early on, the film seems to promise some message or lesson, perhaps a soldier-to-soldier respect for the enemy. "This is a testament to the American soldiers and a tribute to the Vietnamese..." Though a few very small glimpses into the personalities of the enemy are offered, the film backs away from any such message.

Wrapping without a strong message isn't necessarily a mortal sin, "Black Hawk Down" succeeded without a strong theme because the film is 100% engaging and believable, but then again, it didn't promise anything. Each film portrays a specific military conflict in world history in which Americans take heavy causalities, but "Soldiers" attempts to make a Hollywood movie out of the incident and stumbles. Steps are taken, toward making the conflict prompt Mel into realizing that Vietnamese soldiers are just like him ... good at heart, caring, with loving families of their own, and religious. The photojournalist's little speech even hints at this conversion, "I don't want to make any more orphans." No such daring/interesting character development occurs.

Ironically, a quote from the prologue of the book states (referring to previous war movies) "Hollywood got it wrong every damned time. When it was over, the dead did not get up, dust themselves off and walk away... Those that were miraculously unscratched were by no means untouched... Not one of us left Vietnam the same young man he was when he arrived... This story stands as a tribute to the N. Vietnamese as well."

On other fronts, initially, the film's somber serious tone too looks promising, but a few heavy-handed directorial choices turn into many. For instance, Mel's honorable vow to be the first man to step on the battlefield and the last man off is answered in the visual with a close shot of his combat boot hanging off the helicopter reaching for the grass. Then, unfortunately, attempts to weave "the wives' story back home" into the tale are handled far to directly. They just don't work. Did parents really address their kids as "Children" back in the sixties? A war-photo montage that would have played splendidly is corrupted with a motion superimposition of the photojournalist (simply too much).

Then there are the other war movie clichés, "Soldiers" can't escape:

Mel, "They're so young, I look at them and I see our boys."
Wife, "Well then, you're just the man to lead them."

Or, Mel runs to the battlefront communicating all sorts of decisions via radio. It's quiet, the boys have been there for hours, but he steps up (cam close on his suspicious eyes), "A little too quiet," he comments and takes a few shots to pull the enemy out of hiding.

Still, Mel is strong, compelling on his own and sporting a convincing southern American accent despite his international upbringing. His convocation speech might even bring a tear to your eye. Used well and sparingly, Sam Elliot (as the grizzly sergeant) delivers all of the film's best tough one-liners. Also, Scottish sounding yarns drone over the beginning and ending of battle sequences creating a powerful hauntingly serious mood. While the terrain doesn't look like the Vietnam we've seen in earlier films, the battle engagements are realistically gruesome and convincing, and you'll leave the theater with greater respect for soldiers.