Too choppy and unfocused despite its potential

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 1999)

I was disappointed with this film when it first came out, but a recent viewing on DVD mad me enjoy it more.
The movie is beautifully photographed. Malick has a great eye for visuals, and not just for the scenery and pretty colors. He knows how to compose a shot. Like any Stanley Kubrick film, press pause anywhere during this movie and you have a brilliant picture. The movie has an excellent and haunting score, accompanied by effective narration. The war scenes are great in most cases (especially the ones on the hill.) Some solid characters also. The landing on a Guadalcanal beach, with landing craft and airplanes is spectacular, accompanied by impressive sound.
Unfortunately, many of the film's flaws didn't go away the second time. It dwindles on things too much, especially the scenes of one character's gorgeous wife back home. It moves very slowly at times, although I was able to forgive that after the first viewing. It slows down near the end, however, when the movie should be speeding up. It's biggest, most obvious shortcoming is the choppiness of what is rumored to be a five plus hour epic shortened to three; stories start but then drop off suddenly, and this is true of some of the most interesting ones. The best story (in my opinion) involved an almost father-son like relationship between Nick Nolte and John Cusak, but it just ended and never came back. Many actors had much bigger roles in the original cut. There are many characters that a viewer could mix up, since they may look similar and have the same amount of screen time. I am a fan of war films, and would be interested in viewing the final cut. But most people wouldn't, and this puts the director in a situation he could not win, and the film is, sad to say, in the end, a failure.
See it for certain sequences, especially if you're a war movie fan (the film seems pretty accurate, although I thought that Japanese soldiers usually fought to the death at this time, and rarely surrendered). Lastly, this film is nothing like Saving Private Ryan, and should not be compared to it. Since it so often is, however, I would like to say that someone who claims that TRL is better than SPR is most likely either, A.)trying to prove that they are unconventional, or B.)unsophisticated and trying to prove that they are sophisticated.