A piece of performance art.

Rating: 5/10 (1 April 2000)

If this film set out to convey the realities of war then it did so successfully, for war is 95% boredom and 5% dread and fear. In my case I dreaded that the film would never end. Like many films these days the dialogue largely consisted of indistinct mumblings and mutterings that hindered instead of helping the plot, and it needed all the help it could get. The cinematic photography was excellent but surely a movie is not just a visual experience? The mood was overwhelmingly sombre. War is no laughing matter but soldiers develop a black sense of humour to cope with the stress of combat. The only humorous touch appeared at the beginning of the film when the native walking in the opposite direction exchanged a disinterested glance with the soldiers, and I'm not sure that this was intentionally funny. The director only conveyed a one-dimensional image of war like a piece of "performance art" projected onto a screen - a series of stills instead of a moving image. Only Nick Nolte's acting saved us from a living death. A disappointing effort that could have been so much more.