The genius is in the underplaying

Rating: Null/10 (16 July 2005)

Some other comments here have it right, I think: it's a complex interweaving of different feelings and forces, not really one thing or another alone. It is, for instance, an anti-war movie, but it's not just that or simply that. Nor is it simply a glorification of war.
There's an extraordinary moment in the film where it suddenly becomes quite moody and meditative, even melancholy. For a POW film it suddenly feels like a meditation on the passing of time, and things, and how life is really just a stealthy robbery of us all.
There are a couple of moments that feel a bit preachy, and that's a real disappointment, as for the most part the tightrope of subtlety is walked extremely well. (I especially feel a lot of the ending at the farmhouse is beside the point.) So I don't think it's a perfect film. But it is very fine.