Good, not great

For me this film lacks the intensity and involvement to make it a great war film. I think there are several reasons for this: The cast is too big and I think you can only really get involved with 3 or 4 distinct characters in a story. There was too much discussion about the anti-war and race issues back home, which are meaningful but slowed and diverted my focus. The almost mechanical attack, rest, attack, rest pacing and the absence of music to drive it along. A lack of violence in fighting which may be because they've gotten better at this in recent years.
So for me this is similar to We Were Soldiers in that it's about one intense battle but on my rating scale falls a couple of points below it.