Postcard Fairy tale

Rating: 6/10 (28 December 2003)

When Edward Zwick made "Glory", it was remembered at Oscar time because there were realistic performances that caused the movie to transcend from being merely a period drama or other typical war film. His latest war drama uses broad brush strokes to depict this era. Major characters in this film are drawn in a simplistic manner. While this makes it easy to catch on whom everybody is, it leaves little intrigue. Most of this film is predictable. However, I have a fascination with Japan, and this film presents many postcard shots of what we would expect Old Japan to look like. Too bad that the film was mostly shot in California, and relies heavily on computer effects. Some of the effects were not quite there, (a formation of soldiers standing in a field "jump" out of place, but nothing that I would complain about). My biggest problem with this film is the convenient plot points that come about near the end of the movie. No spoilers, but reality seems to be chucked out the window when it comes to some implausible heroics and romantic notions of political changes of heart.
That being said, I enjoyed this movie, as if it were a classic stage production. Cinematography, production design, costumes, and makeup were very well done. The cast does a great job portraying their symbolic characters. The story moves along without plodding, although there were a couple moments near the end that I felt weren't worth the time.

This movie is not as good as Zwick's "Glory". In fact, it seems as though he needed to borrow one of the most powerful scenes from "Glory" to add some spark to this movie. He plagiarizes himself with a scene where a new recruit tries to load his gun while Cruise fires bullets at him. Effective as that scene was, it was "Glory 2". The music was superficial, with little ethnic influence. As good as this film is, it isn't Oscar worthy.
I give this film a 6.5 out of 10.