Beautiful but Unengaging

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2002)

Besides being a huge war movie fan, after hearing "the best war movie ever made" and other critical acclaim of that nature, I was SO excited to see BHD. The cinematography was amazing, of course--Ridley Scott is an incredible talent. The sights and sounds were all there. However, I felt little or no emotional connection to any of the characters--the only characters I even wondered about were Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, and Ewan McGreggor because I could recognize them. I didn't even know Josh Hartnett's character's name by the end of the movie. I didn't care about any of them because there was absolutely no character development. What's worse is the last five minutes when Josh Hartnett and some other guy I didn't recognize gave their "Why we're doing this" speeches--like Scott wanted to spell out a moral for us at the last possible minute. The film lacked focus--it was like an adaptation of a book that was so true to the original text that it didn't coherently transfer to the media of film. However, like I said, the design and production were incredible which means I give BHD 6.5/10.