Sweet sensual pleasure without strong thematic backbone

Rating: 5/10 (12 March 2012)

There were some comments that the movie tries a new form of storytelling. I mapped the scenes along the common 3 act structure, based on the character development steps by Truby, Hauge, McKee, Campbell.
I couldn't find a new style of storytelling up until 40 minutes before end. Up to that point the scenes can be dropped into a typical structure with a normal characters set up, inciting incident as the boats hit the sand, into the storming-the-hill act 2, then act 3 battle, theme revelation at the "water discussion" and moral conclusion as the enemy is finally shown as hurting, scared, naked individuals. The inhumanity has come full circle. The soldier's celebration marks a new equilibrium in which nobody is a winner because "this turns a man into a dog, poisons the soul"
And then, as the story is told, the booze is drunk and the film makers, .ah, soldiers get a week off, sober up and sit around, ideas creep up, like, what about all those beautiful leftover scenes. There's enough material for the film to grow a whole new 40 minute story limb. In it, we see what the character do after the actual movie is over. It artificially extends a story that was basically told at the false victory point.
But I'm glad they picked those scenes off the editing floor room. It's like getting that second pot of ice cream from the fridge at 11 at night. The feast for the senses continues, that painful and beautiful lingering in the story moment, that not wanting to let go of the characters after the curtain has already fallen. It's a movie with it's own mini sequel attached, going nowhere but loving every second of the aimless wandering.
Like ice cream, this film is delicious, but the intellectual and artistic messages are a sugar rush, not a substantial nutrition, because structure, story and character development are not as equally sensually pleasing. Lost potential but still an enjoyable viewing sensation with a beautiful, multicolored explosion of symbols and ideas on what it means to be human.