Very poor by comparison

Rating: 1/10 (5 August 2009)

This film is terrible because it really builds the feeling that combat is going to happen, then tells you combat is for the weak, even though it never happens - these people never engaged, so how can this be a commentary? All those war films about guys who got into, and either lived or died horribly - on both sides - fighting against stuff they didn't understand, told us all about the futility of war for the soldier on the ground. But this is just the story of some guy using wars as a vehicle to promote himself. To hell with his sentimental feelings about feeling abashed about not being part of it, that doesn't make him worthy of a story.
If you want an anti-war story you show the stupidity and humility of both sides, not the drama-less humdrum of someone who wished for more.
I have no idea - I've never been in a war, but neither were these guys. They got as close as me. Perhaps they were close on a geographic scale, but they only suffered the same hardships I did in military school. I was smart enough to join when there was no war on, and to be truthful, my military school was a lot lot tougher than here with far more drama, but no one needed to make a film out of it because it was still too banal.