War as a metaphor for life

Rating: Null/10 (21 November 2011)

I'm reminded of the sequence in which Witt and Sgt. Welsh (Sean Penn)'s response to Pvt. Witt (Jim Caviezel)'s death at the end of the film - "Where's your spark now?" in response to Witt's comment to him just before his death that he still had some spark. For Pvt. Witt, the Earth is a beautiful, idealized place. He is like a figure from Plato's famous Allegory of the Cave in which people sit chained to a wall looking at shadows created by things passing in front of a fire opposite them. They believe that the shadows are actual things and not reflections of them. Pvt. Witt believes that the Melanesian island where he goes AWOL is an example of a idyllic, perfect place while in fact evils have already begun to take hold there, had he been paying attention. This is evidenced by his conversation in which he talks with a young lady there and she reveals that she is scared because he is a soldier. He asks her why the kids don't fight and she says that they do, just not when adults are watching. Life is flawed even in places where it seems untouched by worries and problems. The woman on the island already has experience in dealing with the US military, to the point that she has developed a fear of it.
So it goes throughout the movie, in many contexts. There is a conflict between nature and man's greed. There is the internal conflict in Lt. Col. Tall (Nick Nolte) who abhors his duties and finds them futile, but on the other hand wishes for advancement. There is the conversation between Lt. Sgt. Welsh and Witt in which Welsh says there is no other world, there's just this one rock, while Witt holds that he has seen a more idyllic world. In their final conversation in which Welsh asks Witt whether he's still so idealistic, Welsh seems more tired of war and receptive to a more positive view of human nature but it's too late by then. The change in Welsh through the movie is subtle but clear - from the gung-ho squelcher of the insubordinate Welsh at the beginning to shots of him throughout the film in which he appears more ambivalent about the wisdom of war.
One other relationship in the film is also key-that of Staro (Elias Koteas) and Lt. Col. Tall. Staro refuses orders to take a position which the Japanese are holding very securely and Tall re-states his point that he is ordered to do so, in spite of the fact that Tall has made it clear that he finds his professional position abhorrent. Tall is battling against himself - forcing himself to convey orders which he himself finds repellent.
The sensuous, lingering shots of nature, followed shortly by brilliantly photographed footage of war are also strong evidence of this contrast between what we are pressured to do and another world. This is masterful film-making. It's war as the antithesis of what is life. It's no wonder Malick doesn't make many films because visions of this magnitude and insight do not come in the length of time it takes to conceive of, write, cast, film, and release "The Waterboy."