Exceptionally good but not as great as the hype.

Rating: Null/10 (5 August 2006)

For some, it's simply a matter of placing a war in a context of moral equivalence, angst, and adding the always asked and never answered (by such films), What is war? What is it's purpose? What is right and wrong?, and the war film becomes and instant classic according to those who call themselves anti-war advocates. These questions are asked here in a variety of ways and a multitude of juxtaposed images. Had everyone in WWII been as involved with the soul searching of the several combatants here, it's possible that we might have had a different outcome, or the same outcome in a different way, if you can imagine the leaders of the Allies doing the same sort of ruminating. The best points of this whole exercise are made in two scenes. One, when the Colonel, Nick Nolte, relieves the Lt. of command, and it's clear that the Lt. would have saved his men yet lost the battle, and Nolte is the type of officer that won this war in both the Pacific and in Europe. The other is the scene of the men prodding the crocodile to get it to open it's mouth, and it just stares with it's terrifying eyes. That one shot contrasted with all of the beautiful shots of other natural creatures and scenery is enough to show in visuals what was said by the colonel about nature when he described the vines winding around all of the trees, and choking them. But the film's low point is it's portrayal of most of the Japanese soldiers as being without much courage nor strength of character, a total falsehood and a sadly bigoted point of view.