crushed under its own melodramatic weight

Rating: Null/10 (23 December 1998)

An incredibly promising first 40 minutes of the film is ruined
as film collapses under its own weight. Too many secondary
characters..too many cameos by too many stars..and too many war
cliches. If I see another scene where guy gets killed in
battle, sound is drained out, and melodramatic classical music
is piped in, I think I'll vomit. Strong performances by Penn,
Brody, Koteas, and especially Nolte. Wish they had developed
the Penn Brody relationship a bit further as the most interesting thing about film, is the fact that it remains
unclear where one character begins and another one ends.
Travolta becomes Nolte who becomes Penn who becomes Harrelson in
gradual permutations. All men are good and evil and nature
reigns supreme. A little bit annoying how they have to hammer
this concept over and over through the voiceover. Beautiful
Ci