So... lots of grass, and war is a bad thing?

Rating: Null/10 (31 October 2003)

Although I appreciate this film as a sincere attempt, I must say that it completely escaped me.
I saw it lately with the highest expectations after it had received quite a lot of good reviews, but I found it lacked virtually everything. Everything was drawn out into length, from the exposition on the native island to the closing credits, and even the battle scenes got you bored quite quickly -- not to mention the endless grassy hills on the pacific islands.
Characters? Hm. Not a whole lot of characters around, to be honest, not to mention any development. We don't get to see a whole lot of people _before_ the battle, and as soon as the battle starts, everybody gets hysteric and is reduced to screaming and crying. (And the screaming goes quickly on your nerves, as does the tedious voice-over poetry... it's a film, for Christ's sake, not a poetry slam!) Travolta and Clooney could have been fun characters, but their cameos obviously were introduced only to lure a few more people into the cinemas...
And the plot? I don't think there was one, neither was there a story being told. After the storming of the Japanese camp, I sincerely thought the film was over, and was quite surprised to see another story line unfold (the assault on the creek) -- which was a completely pointless addition, IMHO.
All in all, it felt like a two-hour something snapshot of war, designed to tell me that war is bad. Okay, I knew that before, and the snapshot concept simply doesn't work here: Pitching the audience into battle like the soldiers, and exposing them to the same confusion, just leads to different effects: Soldiers will fear for their lifes, but the audience will just get bored and lose interest.
Although I was very well inclined to the movie in the first place, it simply failed to catch me, and I sat through the two hours dutifully, but without real interest in the people or the story. (Story? Which story?)
P.S.: Trying to avoid having goodies and baddies was a nice idea. But the explanation and "justification" of Nolte's character was a bit too much (like the whole film was "too much" of everything)... pleading too verbosely for his innocence will only make him look guilty...