One of the best war movies, ever!

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2002)

This is one of the best movies of the year! I have read the book and was pleasantly surprised that the movie portrayed many of the stories from the book. In fact, the movie plays more like a documentary of what happened than just a "Hollywood-ized" version of the events. And that is what makes this movie so good. Instead of trying to push characters on us or give us a sappy romantic subplot, it simply lets the events speak for themselves, since the events were horrifying enough to elicit a reaction. The direction was great, and the cast did an excellent job with what they had. I thought the movie did a good job of letting people who had no knowledge of the event know what the situation was. Also, I have heard that there is not enough characterization, or that the movie takes no stand on why we were there, or the political climate surrounding the events. This is a movie about the mission, not a "JFK" type movie trying to explain why or why not we should be there. This movie's main point is to show combat as hell on earth. And it accomplishes that better than any movie before it.