Fine Scott's incursion into the war movies, but it somehow tends to the average

Rating: 5/10 (18 February 2004)

In first place, to be able to appreciate any movie from this genre you must be a-. a nationalist-imperialist green-go (or in the exterior, a pro-yankee that still thinks (or prefers to think) that the U.S. are the good guys of the movie); or well b-. ignore the strong propaganda that is patent on it, and to separate the moral/ethic judgment we may have about the facts from the movie it self. In this movie's case, as hard as it could be, I could achieve this last thing, and, from this position, I may say that it is a fine movie, but nothing extraordinary, and, when compared with other movies from the genre, it may become one more of the lot. Anyway, the tension is well managed, as well as the camera work and the takes, achieving some really interesting scenes. In addition you may notice the direction of someone that knows what he wants, and the plotline, though all the distracting factors that may attempt against it, manages to make it through the the movie and to perform without problem. Other than that, I can't bear it anymore, it's all cheap propaganda (as you may see it isn't that true that I managed to achieve the previously said). About the director, without regarding any personal opinion one may have about him, we can't deny that he is one of the most versatile directors there are in the medium, as there are not two of his movies that belong to the same genre, but, in an opposite way, he has made a foray into every genre he has been able to: from K. Dick's science-fiction, to the historical film, passing through the space terror; and later making he's epic megaproduction. In this terms, being this his first (and probably the last) incursion into the war genre it is not bad, but as said before, it doesn't go further than that.