The Sublime and the Stupid

Rating: 5/10 (6 October 2010)

The so called poetry of this film is out of place, the cut-a-ways to the girlfriend at home during a firefight, the long shots of birds and nature at odd moments, and the often lovely but daft musical score are just a few of the many technical difficulties that plague this beautifully filmed motion picture.
Despite a stellar cast with some good performances, many scenes are marred by the director's desire to make a tragically poetic statement by lingering to the point of viewer exhaustion on solitary characters in crisis. If you don't agree, then ask this question: if you remove Nolte and his character from this movie, does the movie work? Does it succeed at all? My answer is no for without Nolte, the movie fails bitterly despite the excellent cinematography.
There are moments of great film making here and there and the battle scenes generally work well, some brilliantly, some less so (the hilltop melee for example). In the end, war is war and not art or morality, thus the forced marriage fails. What a pity.