overwrought epic of Vietnam and the homefront

Rating: 6/10 (21 April 2008)

Vilmos Zgismond's cinematography is the best thing about this overwrought, overlong male-posturing saga. In the beginning, the accents and locations ring false -- if this is supposed to be realistic, it doesn't work as the huge cathedral where the wedding takes place clearly doesn't belong to small-town coal-mining PA anymore than the deer-hunting sequences obviously shot in the Rockies do. Had the film seemed more naturalistic or expressionistic, this wouldn't have bothered me but instead it seemed like a situation where director and writer did their homework, then just threw away what they didn't like. The wedding sequence was intolerably long and pointless; the Vietnam sequence harrowing but disturbing as much for being devoid of any political context as it was for the horror of what was going on. I found it fantastic that there is virtually no discussion in the film of the morality of the war -- not whether the characters or filmmakers are for or against, but that they show almost no opinion -- what's on screen certainly shows us something of the damaging effects of conflict, but it could be any war. Perhaps that was intentional, but to me the tension between this heightened reality (Vietnam is all wars) and the more mundane elements just didn't work, and I couldn't tell if it was intentional. I liked the sequences of DeNiro coming home and readjusting the best, and his was for me the richest and deepest performance, and character. I'm surprised that Walken's (good) performance of a much less complex character won the Oscar.
Still, it kept me going, and there are moving sequences. Just not all it's cracked up to be I guess.