More time is spent with inane psycho-babble than in honoring the brave men who fought and died in winning one of the most important battles of the Pacific Theater.

Rating: 1/10 (23 January 1999)

The brave men who fought and died to retake Guadalcanal and stop the Japanese advance in the South Pacific are dishonored by this mess of a movie that is more interested in inane voice-over psycho-babble than in a true depiction of their incredible sacrifice. It is all the more tragic because the battle scenes are among the best I have ever seen in a war movie. The camera snakes along through the underbrush at eye level to the soldiers,creating a terrifying realism as these men seek out a well hidden enemy. The movie begins nowhere,and,after the ridge is taken,goes nowhere. Guadalcanal was not a jungle paradise filled with multi-colored parrots and happy, dancing natives. Where are the malaria-carrying mosquitoes and the incessantly swarming bugs? The director is trying to spin some allegory about soldiers trampling an otherwise perfect Eden; he is not trying to present an accurate depiction of a monumental World War II struggle. Flash backs to better times in the States are repetitious and not informative; numerous cutaways to bits of jungle beauty are distracting. Both serve to further slow down a story that creeps along for an overlong three hours. With nothing further to say, the story meanders another needless forty-five minutes, then abruptly ends. Very disappointing.