moving, but not for short attention spans or sugar fans

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2005)

If you hate sad movies please do avoid this, but otherwise I think you should check it out. It is also LONG at 2 hours, so if you can't take anything over 1.5 hours, stay away again. This story deals with mental illness of various kinds, so some things won't be entirely rational here and you meet some dysfunction in this movie. If you can handle those things, there's a great chance you will really enjoy it! It has aspects of a romance story, action movie, family saga, war movie, period piece, and western--how's that for a little something for everyone? The problem is that for people who are very into one of those genres it can't be all that expect, but Zwick surely did try! I have some minor gripes about the cuts & directing of certain scenes and how this affects the storyline (the reason I knock off a star)--which you should see is very complicated/convoluted if you read the spoiler reviews! The loudness of the soundtrack in some places made it difficult to catch all the dialog.
Although not a "feel good" movie, I thought it had many important messages and gave some food for thought. I also applaud the work that the screenwriters did in adapting this work and in not being afraid to make some changes to make this story work on the big screen (though some fans of the book might think them unnecessary/weird). I thought they did a good job. If you have seen the trailers you might expect more violence or romantic intrigue than what this story is about--the strength of this story is the consideration of devotion, family and other kinds, and being able to come to grips with the past.