All wars are different...all wars are the same...

Rating: 10/10 (7 August 2006)

I was very surprised by how good this movie was as my original opinion was based on all the negative feedback from the press and Sam Mendes comment about Americans not being able to comprehend this movie.
I watched it, and I agree. Thats not to say if you are an American you won't understand this, but the structure, moral ambiguity, and feelings it leaves one with at the end are a far cry from Armageddon. This is the first "American" war movie I've seen in awhile that does not ooze patriotism and does not inform the viewer that you are watching the right side of history. In my opinion, this will (and does) make Americans uncomfortable as we (I'm American) are not normally given complex situations where we have to be our own moral compass. This is not traditionally how we have been taught to think. And this movie does not try to wrap it up in a neat little package for us to feel good about at the end of the movie as our fat little fingers finish off our extra large, extra buttery popcorn.
It hit me like a ton of bricks about half way through that this movie was basically an existentialist story. I have not read one review that notes that Swofford was reading Camus at the beginning of this movie. It wasn't just to inform the reader that Swofford was "smart." It was to give you the context of the remainder of the film. For most of the movie there are bleak themes of humanity, a lack of action, moral ambiguity, and simple to no sets. Most of the movie I squinted because the backdrop was sand.
Doesn't this remind anyone else of "Waiting for Godot" by Beckett or "No Exit" by Satre? Anyone? Anyone? A war movie without war. There is a comment in the movie about how others are moving on in their life while the soldiers wait in the desert. Their existence has become subjective to themselves, a classic Existentialist thought. The Gulf War was the setting for this story, but ultimately has nothing to do with it. Their are much broader ideas, like humanity, compassion, and the nature of man.
One drawback to this movie is the director allows for political undertones to seep through. I don't agree with people who state this movie simply lays the facts on the table. Towards the end of the movie someone states "I don't ever have to come back to this G*dD*mn country again!" At which point we are supposed to scoff because, we all know what happens 15 years later. One character is constantly bemoaning the fact that we are simply "protecting our nation's oil supply." That feeling was predominant in the most recent fighting in Iraq. But I remember the general consensus was that Saddam Hussein was a real threat when he invaded Kuwait in 1991. Thats why at the end of the conflict George Bush the first had some of the highest popularity ratings since the metric was created. I think its lazy to try to lay this conflict out in such simple terms (Well, you may, if as a director you don't complain that Americans won't understand the movie because of its complexity, but then push your own arguments in such simple terms).
This movie is worth a watch and I think it could be deconstructed over and over on different levels. I would start by reading the book.