Published Sep 20, 2026, 12:01 PM EDT
Chris is a Senior News Writer for Collider. He can be found in an IMAX screen, with his eyes watering and his ears bleeding for his own pleasure. He joined the news team in 2022 and accidentally fell upwards into a senior position despite his best efforts.
For reasons unknown, he enjoys analyzing box office receipts, giant sharks, and has become known as the go-to man for all things Bosch, Mission: Impossible and Christopher Nolan in Collider’s news division. Recently, he found himself yeehawing along to the Dutton saga on the Yellowstone Ranch.
He is proficient in sarcasm, wit, Photoshop and working unfeasibly long hours. Amongst his passions sit the likes of the history of the Walt Disney Company, the construction of theme parks, steam trains and binge-watching Gilmore Girls with a coffee that is just hot enough to scald him.
His obsession with the Apple TV+ series Silo is the subject of mockery within the Senior News channel, where his feelings about Taylor Sheridan’s work are enough to make his fellow writers roll their eyes.
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*Sam Elliott has one of those screen presences that feels almost purpose-built for a war movie. The unmistakable voice, the mustache, and the ability to look like he’s seen some things have served him rather well across a career spanning more than five decades. While Tombstone, *Road House, and **The Big Lebowski ** are among his most recognizable roles, one of his most powerful early-2000s military epics is now available to watch at home without spending a dime.
Set in 1965 at the onset of the Vietnam War, the story follows Lt. Col. Hal Moore as he leads the U.S. 7th Cavalry into the deadly Ia Drang Valley — a brutal confrontation that defined the early conflict. Alongside Elliott, who gives a standout performance as command Sergeant Major Basil Plumley, the film features an impressive ensemble cast including Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Barry Pepper, Keri Russell, and Jon Hamm. Over the decades, military veterans and historians alike have frequently lauded the production, with many hailing it as the “first one to get it right” when depicting the unrelenting reality of the war.
Four icons and four completely different ways of walking into trouble. This is the one you would have been out there, why it fits, and what it would have cost you.
You have never explained yourself and you have never needed to, because people work out fairly quickly that you are the most capable person in the room without you ever having to mention it.
You are the funniest person in most rooms and the most loyal person in all of them, and you would be genuinely insulted if somebody suggested those two things were in any tension.
You never wanted this job, and you took it anyway because the alternative was standing there watching somebody less careful do it badly, which is the most Western reason there has ever been.
Nobody has ever successfully talked you out of something you had already decided was right, and a long line of grown adults has found that out the hard way.
That acclaimed drama is We Were Soldiers, and it is officially streaming for free on Kanopy (accessible to anyone with a participating public library card or university login). Beyond its original $115 million theatrical run, the film’s standing has only grown due to its ruthless commitment to combat accuracy. In a technical assessment of the film, former Green Beret David Harris examined We Were Soldiers’ harrowing air support scene, praising details like the urgent protocols for “broken arrow” emergency declarations and “danger close” strikes before awarding the sequence a 9/10 for realism.
“I thought these explosions were realistic because from what I’ve seen of drops, with the grass and everything like that… I’m pretty sure this is probably how it looked in real life,” Harris noted. For viewers looking to experience one of the most authentically gritty depictions of modern warfare without paying a subscription fee, We Were Soldiers is ready to stream.
We Were Soldiers is currently streaming for free on Kanopy.
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Randall Wallace