10/10 for the movie, 1/10 for Brad Pitt

Rating: Null/10 (22 September 2002)

It is always a pity to see how this great movie is spoiled by the lousy actor Brad Pitt. Or is it just his part that is so bad and silly? Maybe both. Ok, a blonde, longhaired "natural" actor also seems to me to be the right actor for the part, but Pitt is not a "natural boy", everything he does is calculated to further enhance his "sexy sad boy" image and to lure us away from the fact that he can't act. He reminds me of Errol Flynn. Anyway, despite Pitt everything in this movie is right: great actors (also in the smaller parts, just watch those great Indians!), great directing, photography, score, script and so on. In fact this is the only movie I know that is *much* better than its literary source. The story the movie is basing on is more or less just a rough sketch, very Hemingway-like (and I hate Hemingway). All praise to the scriptwriter who fleshed the story out so wonderfully and added all those great metaphors. If you have the DVD with the audio commentary tracks you get more insight into the mind of Brad Pitt... just watch out for his homophobic or at least very silly remarks about the death scene of Samuel. In the scene where his character leaves his wife he screams something like "f*** off bitch"... I haven't watched any movie starring Brad Pitt since. I just can't stand to watch that dumb macho guy pretending to be oh so sexy any more.