The Harsh Reality

Rating: 8/10 (11 October 2010)

The old war movies are so simple. Our heroes are eventually going to meet that adversary and finish the issue. This is a film about the boredom, the alienation, the disconnectedness that takes place in wartime. The men in this film are hung out to dry in the desert. Remember the first gulf war was fought mostly with high tech weapons and bombing runs. Of course, there were ground casualties and close fighting in some places, but this film is more about the tension that develops when those with their fingers on the triggers are made to stand down. I think the most gripping part of the film is when the oil fields are burning a and sludgy rain of oil ash and black particles rain from the sky. These guys suffocate on this. It's like a plague from the Bible. All they can do is trudge through it. There is much more to this film, but the bottom line is what the heck is the enemy and what do we poor soldiers have to do to confront it? The answer in this case is to wait and see.