Unusually good; spectacular war scenes

Rating: 8/10 (16 January 2020)

Thank goodness ... a nearly good old fashioned war movie, with no agenda, other than to try to convey a sense of what happened and when. Amazing that the big name actors were constrained to be secondary to the story. No false heroes to prop up the script. The leads were unknown to me and it seems to me that they suited the feel of the movie. It is an epic movie in some senses ... but it missed the mark in my mind that could see it becoming a classic. For all the special effects and grand scale setting of this movie, I am guessing that the actors are one to two generations too young, to properly capture the essence of who they were portraying. There is a glaring lack of gravitas. The movie tries to pack in so much detail and so many sub-plots, that just aren't properly developed. This also goes for the characters and if it wasn't for what I consider to be reasonably skilful editing, it would seem like I was constantly being robbed, just as I got to know a character. It is a movie that comes across as being done by 'someone' who really wanted to create another 'Lawrence of Arabia' or a 'Gandhi' ... in other words a movie that was profound ... but you know how it is ... when you have too much money and technology at your disposal, it's hard not to be seduced by taking advantage of all the whizz bang toys you can get your hands on. .... but still, I gave it an 8 which means I really enjoyed it and I hope the film makers made a profit with this because in many ways it is a brave movie to make in an environment that is upside down nowadays in the West ...