Beautiful but bland

Rating: 5/10 (12 September 2001)

Over-long portrayal of the paradoxical relationship between man at war and his environment.
This juxtaposition was photographed in a manner second to none - however, the point could have been made just as well in a half-hour short. As it is it repeatedly hammers home the same tired old references (a bird of paradise in a tree, a gun - a beautiful flower, and explosion - et al) over a tedious 3 hours. The characterisation and writing is exceptionally poor with some decent performances saving you from the full horrors of the script on first viewing.
The spoken-word narrative is what ultimately sunk this film for me; schmaltzy and unbelievable the film ends up feeling cheesy and smug; rather-like a parody of the over-rated Apocalypse Now.
Self-indulgent tedium - watch Das Boot or Dr Strangelove and save yourself a boring (but visually pleasing) couple of hours.