absolutely the worst movie I've seen in years

Rating: 1/10 (27 March 1999)

What I heard about this movie was that, originally, it DID have a story, but the director decided he didn't want Nick Nolte to be the focal character, so he just chopped it up and put it in random order. I think that fact pretty much sums up this movie. It is incredibly self-indulgent; the narrative is horribly fractured but totally pointless flashbacks which aren't even original in their overt art-house techniques and subject matter (long, slow shots of lace curtains waving in the breeze). This "philosophical" movie bludgeons the viewer over the head with its point. There is absolutely no subtley or depth, and somehow all those ruminating voiceovers ("why does nature war against itself") don't really convince me of their profundity. The characters, except for maybe the faces everybody knows already, are indestinguishable from one another. I guess a possible justification for this is that it portrays war in all its confusion, or war makes everybody the same and renders individuality impossible or any of a number of thematic interpretations--but that's not a movie's job; form does not equal content. That's like saying a movie whose message is that , say, politics is boring has a right to be boring itself. Plus, the whole thing is way, way too long for a movie that functions by random images. As my friend said as the movie drew to a close, "Just end!" If you want a real war movie, watch something like The Deer Hunter (it's long too) or Full Metal Jacket.