A different war movie

Rating: 9/10 (30 March 1999)

An excellent film with many actors giving an a very good performance!
It is a different war movie focusing on the contrast between the beauty of nature/ the innocent life of the local natives and the cruelty of the actions of war. I remember a lot of war films from the last 40-50 years, but none of these focused on this aspect. It is the most beautiful war film I have seen due to the repeating sequences showing small wonders of plants, animals and sun light (well knowing that such wonders usually soon disappear in a war zone). On this background the realistic presentation of the fear and sufferings of the young soldiers on both sides (not to mention the awareness of what is going on in Eastern Europe these days) leaves one with the question: Why cannot human beings find another way of solving serious international conflicts? Will we never learn ? It is important that young people see a movie like this one. The message of this film may be as strong (if not stronger) as that of the traditionally more dramatic and noisy war films. When the movie was finished nearly all of us including many young people sat silent for 1-2 minutes before we left the cinema. This does not happen very often!