Garbage. It will give you a headache

Rating: 1/10 (14 July 2000)

I live in America, I am glad we have freedom and a reasonably good Constitution, and I have enjoyed many movies in the past that were around three hours long. So, I think that proves I'm not a commie, with the attention span of a fruit fly. I liked Braveheart. A lot.
While the cinematography was adequate, and even interesting in some shots, the editor of this movie pretty much raped anything that the director of photography might have set out to do. Cuts are made sometimes without even a 10-degree change in the camera's position. Its no suprise the editor, David Brenner, also worked on ID4. Its similar to the Armageddon school of "Needless cuts."
Apart from some laughable CG, the fake troops and scenery is generally good. I doubt I would have been able to spot them if I had not seen a small story on the process behind making the battlefield shots on Dateline:NBC.
Roland Emmerich (previous sins: ID4, Godzilla), the director, seemed to fancy the look Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator used (with better effect on SPR's part) with diagonal shutters, and altered shutter-speed. Thankfully the action stays zoomed-out for the most part, unlike Gladiator where it was mostly close-up blur.
This seems to be a good sign, but there is very little action. One of the opening night battles is a good sign to come, with gunpowder explosions lighting up the nearby forests beautifully. But this action is not sustained. That would be fine if the director could make us feel anything for the characters, but they are all walking cliches. Emmerich relies heavily on a horrible, forgettable score. I was shocked to see this was written by John Williams. A stinker in every respect. If this maudlin crap is your excuse for good orchestral music, I feel sorry for you. Please try to listen to some real music in the future, by competent composers. Its a sad day for soundtrack fans I guess. Hopefully he can pick up his former glory with Episode 2.
I'll steal a quote from Steven Spielberg and say that this movie's portrayal of war was very pornographic, especially at the end. The joyous swells in the score accompany mindless, English robot-drones happily skipping to their deaths. Come on. This movie has nothing to say, and insults the intelligent viewer.
Mel Gibson got paid 25 million dollars to be in this movie. The Usual Suspects cost 6 million to MAKE. Taxi Driver cost 1 million to MAKE. The Godfather cost 6 million to make. Pulp Fiction cost 8 million to make. I hate to think of how many great, original, and interesting films were sacrificed to get this crap produced.