true to life

Rating: Null/10 (29 April 2002)

This movie was faithful to the book which itself was meticulously researched. If you hate the politics of the situation, you must appreciate the ugliness of this movie. Its about some young men's day in hell. The scene of exhausted vomitting soldiers reaching a stadium with taunting crowds behind them was a spectacular dark parody of Olympic/Nationalistic rituals. How many movies show a slow-mo of a dead "enemy" child being carried? "This is not your war, Americans" was repeated.
Ridley Scott's talent for lavish, dark atmospheres creates here a lavish, bright, dusty atmosphere instead. And hey, did anyone see a huge similarity between the leg surgery scene and the stomach-exploding scene of Alien? Regardless, the scene was straight out of the book.