Only average without the music

Rating: 6/10 (23 April 1999)

This movie seems to tear your heart out. If you try watching the key scenes some time with the sound turned down, you realize that it's a run-of-the-mill war movie. Stone's direction is excellent, as always, but his greatest inspiration was to play Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings during the scenes of battle and carnage. The music is what tears your heart out. Without it, you're left with a well-crafted movie based on mediocre material. I credit Stone with using Barber's music to such devastating effect.