Very Disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (2 January 1999)

Considering all the Oscar hype surrounding this film, I really was expecting a much better work. This film lacks any coherent sense of itself. It tries to be a character study, but doesn't adequately develop any of the characters. Moreover, the costume and makeup units do a very poor job of making the soldiers distinguishable from one another. While this may constitute an interesting statement in itself, it further hampers the effectiveness of a character study. The result is a slow-moving film that seems to have little point to it. There is some interesting dialogue in the voiceovers that smacks of Gnostic dualism, but it is disjointed in the context of the story and comes across as rather "tossed off." There is little else to distinguish it from the generally hackneyed war film genre. All the classic elements are there--the Dear John letter, the rebellious squad commander--but they are there in their most cliched format. If you want a quality war film, see Saving Private Ryan, but give this one a miss.