The anthill, the ants and Kubrick's genius.

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 2001)

So terse and unrelenting, it reminds war short stories by the great Ambrose Bierce. There's also slight Kafkian touch: the looming "anthill" in the begining evokes Kafka's unreachable Castle. The ensuing beaurocratic passages of colonel Dax also owe something to the writings of the famed Austrian, though, of course, the author's tone and stance are different. The division of characters into stone good and stone bad is not that disturbing: the good guys are not so flawlessly and grotesquely good as the bad guys are bad. And finally - the Kubrick's cinematic genius manifested in black and white exquisite imagery. The trench and battlefield scenes are almost surrealist nightmare-like trips hypnotizing the viewer, and the execution part is one of the most dexterously made pieces in cinema history as it makes you literally involved in this death-soaked dismal sight. Unfortunately, the last scene is too unnatural unlike the rest of the film. In spite of that POG is among the most compelling war movies ever made on this planet.