My brief review of the film

Rating: Null/10 (26 May 2005)

At times horrifying and intensely realistic, this study of comradeship and fighting in war is a stunning, albeit imperfect, piece of cinema. The tropic setting is excellently portrayed, with natural sounds recorded brilliantly, but the explosions and noises of combats are equally captured well. The camera-work and editing and appropriately frantic, and Georges Delerue's haunting music sends a chill down the spine. The quality of the acting from the entire cast is superb and Charlie Sheen is fantastic in the lead - he is able to convey a sense of innocence for his character very well. Towards the end it all becomes a bit too monotonous, and the message feels like it is pushed a bit far, but the only really significant problem I found in it was that Dafoe and Berenger just seem too simply developed as symbols of good and evil. This is not however anything that detracts from the experience, but something that entered my after-thoughts. I cannot think of any war film that is so frightening as this, and few that I have seen have ever been as generally well made as this.