A brilliant film on the inhumanity of war.

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2004)

Minor SPOILERS
As you might gather from my username I am a terrible fan of this movie, so much so, that I'm now known as this movie.
The name Terrence Malick (who wrote and directed this movie) is legendary to me. I saw his only big movie besides this, the 1978 Oscar winner "Days of Heaven" in 1995, when I was sixteen. I thought it was immediately the most incredible movie I'd ever seen. Not because it was flashy, or impressive in any way, but because it was real, and harsh and told you the inescapable truth, no matter how you wanted to run.
At the time this incredible invention called the Internet wasn't so readily available (I didn't really get to using it until 1999), so I was searching high and low for more movie by this incredible guy called Malick, but I never found any. So when I finally heard the name Terrence Malick uttered in connection with this movie in the summer of 1998. My old memories came flooding back, and my excitement rose when I heard of the incredible cast, which is immediately the first incredible plus that this movie carries around. The cast is simply awe inspiring. Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, John Travolta and George Clooney were some of the big names this movie offered. In addition this movie contains a large amount of then unknown but now big actors like Jim Caviezel (Passion of the Christ), Adrien Brody (The Pianist) and Jared Leto (Requiem for a Dream, and soon Alexander). And even beyond that it offered even great performances from actor who I'd never seen before, and haven't seen since like Elias Koteas, Ben Chaplin, John Dee Smith and Arie Verveen. With such a terrific cast of names Terrence Malick didn't surrender the movie to them, but kept all the parts in balance, or even gave the emphasis to some of the smaller names, as Jim Caviezel arguably has the largest part and hadn't even acted in a major movie until then.
When I finally went to see the near three hour movie I can only say I was astounded by it. The movie hit me as 'Days of Heaven' did, with the realization that I'd seen something truthful and powerful, unlike 'Saving Ryan's Privates' which I'd seen several moths before, which, apart from the great opening scene, was a pretty bad movie which prays on stereotyped characters to advance a plot which only is about shooting and violence. When I saw this movie I felt profoundly touched by a deep realization I'd seen something the soldiers had really been through.
The plot is rather simple. It is the story of the army that took Guadalcanal Island in the pacific in 1943, seen through the eyes of several soldiers. And with this incredible cast of unknowns and much-knowns we get something very unusual, namely an actor, not action, driven war movie. Much of the movie is not about the marines shooting up a bunch Japanese, as I said there is little plot, but an examination of what happens in between those rare moments when soldiers saw any action. But Don't get me wrong, there is action galore, including an hour long scene where the soldier's try to conquer a hill occupied by several Japanese gun emplacements. The story is not told by dialogue, but through he thoughts of the soldiers themselves, told through the narration.
The movie is also very visually beautiful. Oscar winning cinematographer John Toll (Braveheart, Ledgends of the Fall) has created a veritable masterpiece of camera work.
The movie is severely criticised for being too long and too slow paced. I do feel that those criticisms miss the point slightly. The point is that the soldiers never knew when they would be fighting again, and so the slow pacing, to emphasise the point that they weren't always in combat.
Another criticism is that when you watch this movie its like flicking between the nature channel, history channel, and occasionally the psychology channel. Although this is partly true (the movie opens on a shot of a crocodile, and frequently intercuts to show animals, or wide landscapes) the movie clearly wants you to look beyond the realm of a Jean-Claude van Damme like shoot-up movie, nor would the movies point have worked if it had been about the shooting, like Saving Private Ryan.
This movie is mainly a humanitarian movie. It shows mainly the contrast between life (the Malenesian scenes) and death (the battle scenes). It promotes life, but not by voicing it. It shows it strong and powerful message by showing how horrible war really was.
A terrific movie, definitely a 9/10 (maybe even a 10/10), which is very high up on my list of all time favorite movie. Nominated for seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director), winner of the prestigious Berlin Golden Bear, and winner of Best Director at the New York Film Critics Awards and Chicago Film Critics Awards.