Original Soundtrack - We Were Soldiers (CD)

All Music Guide

From a record company point of view, the opportunity to create a musical counterpart to writer/director Randall Wallace's Vietnam war movie We Were Soldiers must have seemed ideal, and Sony has responded by getting a large number of its developing pop and country acts, among them Train and Five for Fighting on the pop side and Tammy Cochran and Montgomery Gentry on the country side, to record new material for the project. This is a "music from and inspired by" soundtrack, though there is no indication which songs were used in the actual film. Clearly, the songwriters (most of whom are not the same as the performers) were inspired by a story of wartime separation ("Good Man," "Some Mother's Son") and camaraderie ("For You," "Soldier"), as well as that Vietnam-specific complaint, "Why weren't the vets welcomed home as heroes?" ("Didn't I"). All this self-righteous solemnity might be easier to take if it were in the service of a movie about a different war and not another of those Hollywo...od rationalizations attempting to justify Vietnam by focusing on the grunts. (Is Hollywood ever going to make a film about the people who were right about Vietnam?) But even then, the tone would be so heavy-handed that it wouldn't be much fun to listen to. - William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read more Less