What a disappointment!

Rating: 4/10 (6 April 2020)

I skipped this one when it came out. Perhaps we had had so many Vietnam films by then that I Just didn't feel like another. I grew up during the Vietnam War and I think that having seen this movie so long after its release gave me better perspective. It just isn't good. The script keeps us interested until the last hour which is numbingly boring. All focus is gone and it is just a lot of hollering. Hanks does what he can with the role but the script just doesn't make him that interesting. He comes off more as pathetic. One thing for which no one will ever accuse Oliver Stone of being is subtlety. Think what this movie could have been in the hands of an artist. Then again, I didn't like Coming Home, The Deer Hunter or Platoon either. For me the great Vietnam movie is "Apocalypse Now." Nothing comes close to truly demonstrating the horror of war.