Doesn't deserve your scorn

Rating: Null/10 (2 February 2002)

Okay, for all the critics who question the release date of this movie; yes, obviously this movie is pro-American. Obviously they're hoping that it will convince people that letting the US Army police the world is somehow a good thing. That's not the movie's fault. No war movie can help but take sides when it's portraying combat, any more than a Western can take the side of the cattle-rustlers. Was Saving Private Ryan criticized because it took the side of the Allies? That's just the way the genre works. And let's take a moment to appreciate all the films merits, especially when we consider that we're dealing with Jerry Bruckheimer, the man who brought us Pearl Harbor. I hope this movie marks a turning point for him. This is the first war movie since Saving Private Ryan that has been all about soldiers fighting each other. Enemy At The Gates, Pearl Harbor, they all made me physically sick with their pointless, clichèd love stories. Why does Hollywood have this compulsion to take a kinetic, entertaining story, and ruin it by throwing in some brunette for the main character(s) to fall in love with? Save it for romantic comedies, please! Stop criticizing the film for what it isn't. It's not an anti-war film, it's certainly not a documentary. It never claimed to be. It is, however, a jarring, violent, well-acted, well-directed and realistic story of soldiers in combat, and that's exactly what I came to see.