Too many stories.

Rating: 5/10 (24 January 2005)

The tagline on this movie, "Every man fights his own war" is disturbingly apt. I say it's apt because we get to see the private war of several of these men. Unlike most movies, which focus on one, maybe two main plots (plot and subplot) this movie gets far too carried away with too many stories. Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, John Travolta, Jim Caviezel, Woody Harrelson, George Clooney and others each played a top-billing kind of role. Each of them had a story that we were supposed to care about. But that's too many stories, and in the end the movie comes across as scattergun and ad hoc. Two stories handled well, and I'd have been happy. But that many? Sorry, it's all a bit much.
Look at Saving Private Ryan. Two main stories - Tom Hanks' character and his journey, and James Ryan. The rest is important, and valuable. The young communications officer, for one. Tom Sizemore's crusty sergeant. But Hanks' Capt Miller was the man with the real journey, and we care about him, which is why we keep watching.
A friend who knows some of the crew from the filming of Thin Red Line (in North Queensland) tells me that much of the cinematography involved wandering through the rainforest filming filler of shrubs and birds and dripping water. And watching the film, I'd believe it. The photography was breathtaking, but in my opinion a movie needs more than pretty pictures to deserve a Best Picture Oscar nomination. A story, for example. A real, human story with characters you care about. I don't think it's too much to ask.