Could have been great, but overall failed effort

Rating: 4/10 (21 February 2001)

The acting, photography and over all plot were superior. The movie sorely needed editing with too much gratuitous "National Geographic" footage. Japanese soldiers were inaccurately depicted as cringing and crying when they were legendary for their courageous, fanatical courage and obstinate refusal to surrender. This movie reminded me of the English Patient in its pretentiousness and need for a good barber-style shearing of superfluous celluloid.