Sixth grade philosophy at O.J. Simpson trial speed

Rating: 2/10 (27 January 1999)

That red line ain't the only thing that's thin... 1 star out of 4.
I read a review posted on the IMDB stating that they were disappointed George Clooney didn't appear until the last five minutes of the movie. About 1 hour into the film, I started praying Clooney would show up!
The first half hour is just a poor duplication of Das Boot. The rest is just poor (please stop comparing this to Apocalypse Now!). Terrence Malick has no idea how to shoot a film. With all this montage of scenery, flashbacks, voice-overs, and people staring into the wilderness you never connect with the character. I was just hoping the main character would hurry up and die.
I'll rephrase that, you do connect with one character; Captain John Gaff played by John Cusack. Cusack seemed the only player that gave it his all and became emotionally involved with his part. It is because of Cusack this film is 1 star instead of 0.
I've always hated voice-overs, and in this film they are more plentiful than bullets. Terrence must not have realized that he could have more voice-overs if it was all done in pantomime!
The thing that scares me more than this film's success is that critics and individuals seem to think it's deep. If you haven't already pondered all the philosophy brought up in this film, you need a conscience. I felt like I was having flashbacks to book reports on sixth grade assigned reading.
The side topics brought up in the film which could have added emotion were only touched and never examined. Examples include the passing over of promotion, a dismissal due to difference of opinion, the accessibility of an officer of higher rank... None of these topics were perused.
In the end I should have saved the seven bucks, stared at a tree and had a four year old read the voice-overs to me. After these three hours, I wouldn't be surprised to see the tree get up and leave.