Powerful, but not for everyone

Rating: 10/10 (12 March 1999)

Well, I don't really know what to say about this movie. It's easily one of the best I've seen. but I can't really express why. So I'll just address some criticisms. first: no characters. This one's easy. There aren't supposed to be any. All the characters just represent a human. They are all just parts of our human psyche (for instance Nolte is frustration and Kotias is humanity in my opinion). Two: there is no plot. Yes there is. Just look a bit further. It's about the development of a man in the front of war (and I don't mean just caviezel, remember, the whole cast represents one man) third: it's pseudo-philosophy. This is utter nonsense. I study philosophy, and Malick used to teach it. He knows what he's talking about. And read Nietzsche and compare him to sgt. West (Penn). Fourth: It's boring. Look at 1-3 and watch the movie again with them in mind. Now I've so far seen it twice and I have to admit, the first time I saw it (at 22.30h) I didn't really get it either and I got one nagging feeling, which I get every now and then after seeing a movie. So I went to see it again at a more decent hour, and I realized there was nothing wrong with the film but with the way I had looked at it the first time. How much I'd missed.
And if you still don't like it now. Then I guess it just wasn't for you. This is just like any art not for everybody. Remember, there's still lots of people who say picasso's work is ugly.