One of the all-time classics

Rating: 10/10 (1 April 2012)

This is one of the all-time classics and certainly one of the best war movies ever created without the banal fighting scenes. The full of emotions story benefits greatly from the performances of Bale and Malkovich, who turn the nearly 3 hour drama into a very enjoyable experience. The story requires the length of the movie as it is extremely deep and full of little details that need to be included in order to achieve the full emotional effect. Of course it is worthless to say that the big break of Christian Bale could not have been more impressive. He turns this into so much more than the normal coming-of-age movie with astonishing facial expressions and acting well beyond his tender age at the time.