A very good film well worth watching

Rating: 10/10 (14 November 2009)

This film is superbly well made and a credit to all the team that were involved in its creation. For me it hasn't got any obvious weaknesses and is well worth watching. I have only ever watched it about three times and the reason is although its subject matter is important and relevant I would never regard it as a film I would watch repeatedly over the years. Basically I see this film as more of a psychological drama than an action film and it seems to me to be a supreme study of multifarious emotions and states of mind under almost constant high levels of stress and danger. This description doesn't mean it will be automatically discarded and overlooked but perhaps seen in a different light, however there is something about this film which although a very good finished product has not resulted in many people voting or writing reviews. I can understand this to a certain extent because although it is a classic it is a very sad story and doesn't appear to leave the viewer with any positivity. Virtually nothing positive comes from War and this film is a perfect example of this. The film as a study of human behaviour under extreme circumstances it is a very fulfilling experience but I suspect it is not a film most people would grab for a night in with a beer. That is sad but such is the nature of the subject. Having said all of the above please watch this film not because it is historically accurate but because for me it is just over two and half hours of human interaction parts of which could have been extracted from any incident from any of the war torn parts during the duration of the second world war. It is a representation of the tragic possibilities of war and how logic and common sense are very rarely in evidence but horror, absurdities and suffering are there in abundance and a single viewing of this film would demonstrate this well