Brilliany Schmilliant

Rating: Null/10 (17 January 1999)

The Emperor isn't wearing any clothes. And his name is Terrence Malick.
This is a three hour movie that seems as if two more movies have been edited out of it. The result is a mishmash of a film with big name stars wandering in and out (mostly out) of the meandering narrative, while new faces contribute artsy-fartsy philsophical voice-overs of which their characters hardly seem capable. There is much to like, especially visually, but some stunning cinematography and beautiful nature shots strung together do not a film make.
Sean Penn gives a dignified performance as a war-weary sarge, and Nick Nolte is impressive as a gruff colonel. Other than that, the big name performances seem oddly truncated (George Clooney literally has about 30 seconds screen time.) And the newcomers, all with dark hair, dirty faces, and twangy accents, are undistinguishable.
Malick's films never seem to be about what they're really *about.* _Days of Heaven_, for example, seems to be less about a tragic love triangle than the loss of innocence and the destruction of an idyllic world. Great, but the depiction of the brutality and insanity of war is strong enough without beating us over the head with symbolism.
There are some beautiful visuals in the film that are pure poetry: heavenly light filters in through the lush jungle canopy onto a dying soldier, a brilliant, blue butterfly flits across the battlefield carnage. They are stunning moments, to be sure, but how many of these juxtapositions do we really need to see? Yeah, we get it, Terrence.
I found myself far more involved with the less "brilliant" _Saving Private Ryan_. Malick's film is often more stunning and poetic than Spielberg's, but for a film about war to be uninvolving is unforgivable.