Terrence Malick's "Of War"

Rating: Null/10 (9 March 1999)

This is a note for anybody who has not yet seen TTRL: THIS IS NOT SAVING PRIVATE RYAN II! It's vitally important that you understand this going into the film or even if you're only considering seeing it. It's vital because if you think you're going to see a straight forward war movie then you're only going to be hideously disappointed. And that would be a real shame because somewhere in here is a magical film. You've just got to be prepared to look for it.
Terrence Malick has always been one to bypass story in favour of emotion. It seems that having taken twenty years off has not changed his opinion. As a result the first thing to strike you will be the beauty of the visuals. Each shaft of light coming through the jungle canopy is a joy to behold. Your next thought will be "And? When is something going to happen?" There's another ten minutes of Jim Caviezel as the constantly AWOL Private Witt to endure (yes, endure is the word) in his idyllic island life before a navy patrol boat arrives. When it does you'll be somewhat relieved because there is now the promise of something actually happening. Patience. Terry isn't finished yet.
It's about three quarters of an hour before the opening shot is fired. For a war movie this is rather long. But this is not a 'war movie.' It's a movie about war. In the interval there's a long, slow study of the men in 'C' for Charlie company and the world they're entering. And again slow is the word. Malick takes his time introducing his troops. But then there are a lot of them to go through. There's about 17 major characters and dozens of minors. And all of them, without question, are acted magnificently. Penn, Nolte and Cusack will be the most familiar regulars but this film is held by the 'B' players. As it should be in a way because wars are won by the grunts. And as they all breathe life into such real characters we get Malick's sumptous, textured visuals. And what visuals they are. The sight of a native casually strolling by a squad of armed troops as if he was passing them on the street. Private Bell's memories of his wife at home. A butterfly as it floats by the tree roots. And then there are the voice overs. Lyrical, poetic pieces about the nature of man, war and nature. Yet beautiful as this all is there's no structure. There's no plot. There's no real direction.
If a picture painted a thousand words then TTRL is the complete set of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, with appendices, with several copies of War & Peace thrown in for good measure. But without a central structure there's nothing to string them together. And this is really TTRL's problem. It's a collection of emotional images but with no direction. It's enough for us to know that the company landed at one end of the island, marched through it, and came off at the other side victorious. But we never go into the events that took place in between. The only major event is the bunker attack in the middle of the film. But even this goes on for too long without nothing much happening. When this frontal attack ends the alternative flank approach succeeds in ten minutes. But then that was point. It showed that Col. Tall, safely co-ordinating the attack from a mile behind, doesn't care about his men enough to use a much more strategic but time consuming approach if the suicidal charge gets the job done quicker.
And that is what makes the film great. Malick's vision, though slow and wayward at times, does deliver the emotional impact if you're prepared to let it. If you want slam-bang thrills then you won't find them here. That is not the film's purpose. This film takes you into the hearts of these soldiers and allows you to experience their emotions. The worst thing you can do with this film is watch it, find it boring and then just forget it. You must analyse it. Break it down. True many of the shots are unnecessary. But for each of those there are two so haunting as to be genius. For the price of a few too many of Bell's memories you have the sight of a lone soldier lost in a misty haze as the occasional bullet whizzes past. Or the image of Witt's return to the village to find his Eden corrupted by the cruelties of war. The best sequence is the companies attack on the Japaneses encampent. Whilst only five minutes long it's a frenetic episode as the camera moves in all directions. Inside huts, over corpses, alongside running troops. Its pace means we never actually see anybody killed clearly so there is no sense of loss. Until it stops and the defeated Japanese are paraded in front of us. There is no feeling of victory or pride. Only shame.
Without structure a film remains only a series of pretty pictures. When the pictures are as pretty and emotional as this you can make allowances. They work better as short clips or glimpses into the nature of war and should really be seen as such. This is undoubtedly one of the best artistic movies ever made and you wish that Malick could have been given more time to edit it. A long running time is not a bad thing but it could probably have been used more constructively. I would rather sit watching a fantastic film for 10 hours than watch a series of clips on a familiar theme for 3. You wonder what Malick could do with a film that had a rigid and absolute structure that he would have to stick to. Until that time try this. If you have any interest in cinema you should enjoy it. If you don't well try it any way. It might persuade you to have one.