The most obvious propaganda

Rating: 2/10 (6 May 2001)

OK, I first have o admit that I was coerced into seeing this movie. I had heard many good things about it, and the fact that it wasn't an America vs. movie intrigued me. I hoped that this would be an evenly told story that had no ulterior motives. Boy was I wrong.
This movie is probably one of the most obvious pieces of pro-war propaganda since John Wayne was alive. "U-571" is a little close, but nowhere near as obvious as this. Morals of the story: germans were bad, russians were good, sex leads to failure. That last one could be derived from the result of one of the funniest, and most gratuitous sex scenes in film history (including Caligula). What happened because of death? The hero couldn't perform his duties.
I liked the fact that EVERYBODY spoke English. But, that paled in comparison to the fact that Finnes had a constant five-o-clock shadow, but was never clean shaven. That was amusing. The love story was lacking, the war story was lacking, about the only thing that wasn't lacking was the strange accents.
The best part of the movie was that it was about propaganda. I don't know if that was supposed to have any sort of effect on the final shot.
******SPOILERS******** The final shot was the ultra hero shot. With Finnes looking up and to the right (with his head at the left side of the screen), and the light glowing from the right side of the screen in his face. He's Superman!! Bleh. Also, the foreshadowing was obvious, the movie was put together so horribly that I found nothing intriguing about it. Russians are going to win, Fiennes will be the result, he'll get the girl.

If you want a good war movie, rent Full Metal Jacket, Apocolypse Now, The Thin Red Line. Something not so obvious. Don't rent this tripe.

2/10