Brilliant Cinema

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2005)

From a technical standpoint I found the movie basically flawless. It gets the point of just how bad the civil war was without having to nauseate viewers with blood. It uses the trick of what you don't see instead. The constant sound of sporadic gunfire, sirens, and people running by screaming sufficiently scared the pants off of me.
The fact that the film can do this speaks volumes to the quality of script, cast, and production itself. For once the MPAA got the ratings right. 13 year old children have seen and heard far more gory, but the subject matter might very well be far too complicated for them to understand. I wouldn't worry too much about the original r rating beyond that.