A Mel Gibson spectacular.

Rating: Null/10 (15 January 2004)

How does war ever solve any problems, this film wants us to consider, because hideous though the business may be for those in the fighting, it is infinitely more ugly and tragic for those merely living where the fighting takes place. What glittering abstraction could possibly be worth all that suffering and destruction? Democracy? Even "then" the film is not so sure, as it has Mel Gibson's character asking his peers why he should trust less the authority of one tyrant three-thousand miles away than three-thousand of them one mile away. Indeed, the tyranny of the lowest common denominator, which is what democracy has become in America, is every bit as onerous to individual efforts to rise above it than the rule of any king. Perhaps even "more" so, because where one can always hope for a better king, only the most conspicuously mediocre ever rise to the top under democracy.
Of course, that is probably to read more into the films message than the writers of the film had in mind, but nevertheless it sets the stage for considering such questions. War not only brings out the worst in the best sort of minds, but also allows the worst sort to realize their darkest desires. That much is clearly the point of this story. What might have been "gained" as a result of all the horrors endured in the winning is assumed to be self-evident, but whether it was or was not remains a question of considerable interest. So although that additional concern may not have been meant as pivotally significant, it underlies an important part of the story, deserving of more comment than it typically receives.