I expected more

Rating: 6/10 (30 October 2000)

This movie I was looking forward to for a long time. When it was finally aired on German Pay TV, I could at last watch it and I was slightly disappointed.
Though there are many strong passages in the film which make it a worthwhile experience, there are too many lame or over-ambitioned sequences to compare this one to the big genre masterworks like Platoon.
In my eyes, it was the metaphysical dream sequences which spoiled the experience. The director tried too hard to get philosophical, and in some passages the monologues of the characters are plain silly.
The war sequences though, supported by splendid actors such as John Cusack, were very intense and there was a lot of suspense and anxiety when the soldiers were simply WAITING for something to happen, knowing that every second they could hear the death bell.
Another bad fact was that two of the main actors, James Caviezal and Ben Chaplin, looked so much alike that it was hard to tell them apart in the chaos of war, both wearing the same clothing and a dirty face. Though both did a decent job, it would have been the responsibility of the casting agent to avoid such a problem.
All in all a decent war movie, but far from the genres leaders.