We Were Soldiers/YMMV

• Crowning Moment of Funny: Pretty much anything that Sgt. Major Plumley says; amplified by the fact that he doesn't talk much through out the movie, as well as pretty much any situation where a friendly conversation on the battlefield is interrupted by a bullet whizzing by close enough to, say, pass between two men shaking hands, or to shatter the head of a flashlight clipped to an officer's uniform. It's almost a Running Gag.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: After taking the diary of a slain NVA soldier, Moore goes through the trouble of making sure the diary makes it back to the soldier's girlfriend.
  • Another, though very macabre, is that after a battle, the Americans are respectful enough to gather up the dead NVA soldiers so that their comrades can collect them.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: "Mansions of the Lord." Randall Wallace intended to use an Army equivalent of the Navy Hymn (Eternal Father), but discovered that no such song existed. So, he wrote one. So awesome it was played at President Reagan's funeral.
  • The soundtrack version is sung by the West Point cadet choir, and brings tears to this troper's eyes every time. All the more poignant when one realizes that the proud young men and women singing their hearts out are now Army officers leading their troops in combat.
• Narm: Combined with Unfortunate Implications when the black woman's husband dies and she reacts to being notified of it by mumbling her Big No in a hammy, incoherent and unfortunately stereotypical way.
• Nightmare Fuel: Literally invoked by the effects of napalm. Especially on poor Jimmy Nakayama...that's not creative liberty on Hollywood's part, that actually happened.
• Retroactive Recognition: Moore's son is a pre-Middle School Ned Bigby.
• Squick: Poor Jimmy. Poor Joe too.

"Grab his legs!" *shudder* ^[1]

• Tear Jerker: The taxi driver, delivering death notification letters to widows, stops at Colonel Moore's house to ask his wife for directions to another house. She initially thinks her husband has died, and is not pleased to find out why she just got the scare of her life.

Julie Moore: You JACKASS! Do you know what this is?! Do you know what you just did to me?!
Taxi Driver: (sheepishly) I-I don't like this job, Ma'am. I'm just trying to do it. (continues toward cab)

• • Also, just before when Julie goes over to her neighbor's house to discover she had a cab driver come to her door who was NOT just asking for directions.
  • As well as the montage of Julie and Barbara delivering the other letters to the wives.
  • When Moore sifts through the diary of one of the slain NVA soldiers and finds a picture of the soldier's girlfriend inside.

1. ↑ His legs were so badly burnt, when Joe tried to lift them, Jimmy's skin slid off of his flesh in Joe's hands.