A vivid fantastic epic with great performances

Rating: 10/10 (28 January 2006)

This is perhaps Spielbergs finest movie. It deserves as many if not more accolades than Schindlers List. A brilliant story brilliantly told with some of the greatest shots ever filmed. I am really surprised Empire... didn't make the IMDb top 250??! Standout performances by Christian Bale and the usual superb contribution from Malkovich. The movie captures sadness tragedy and the glory of war (it does not wallow in suffering and misery of prison camps )and the greatness of the human spirit. One of the few movies (along with Godfather and Shawshank Redemption and Marathon Man) where the script manages to remain true to the novel and successfully transfers the magic to celluloid. Its right up there with Apocalypse Now for compelling story telling and LOTR for power and spectacle. If you haven't seen this you have missed something.