More of a powerful ego than a powerful movie.

Rating: 1/10 (12 March 1999)

Normally I would refrain from casting a negative review of a movie, with the belief that I may have just been in a negative mood, or that I've somehow missed the big picture- but this particular film has forced me into a number of firsts for myself- many more than it created for the movie industry. I have never walked out of a movie before in my life, but I felt I had no choice in this instance. I have no idea how much time this movie had left in it when I left- I spent as much time as I could dealing with the imagery, voice overs and the desperate attempt to save this movie with the big name characters.
While I could see where Terry was going with this one, I felt this film was far too pretentious and egotistical for my liking- and apparently for many others. It definitely tried to be a powerful movie, but ended up to be a powerful bore- I wish I could have had the choice to bore a hole in my head rather than to have wasted 2+ hours of my life and $7.50.
I feel the 'deep' voice-overs and flashbacks that just seems to be misplaced from some other movie and thrown into this one. This movie is an outrage, nothing more- nothing less. It's said by a select handful of movie-goers as the best movie of the 1990's- to each their own. Truthfully, I was bored through the entire movie. No, I did not walk into the theater expecting a big shot-em-up movie- but I did expect a plot, character development and after a couple of hours I was expecting an end to this tragedy, and soon. But as I felt it was never getting there, I was overcome with the urge to get up and walk out (as I had noticed that at least half of the viewers had already done by that point) but I stuck it out- and half an hour later, I thought, "What am I doing here?"
Visually, this was a good movie. The nature scenes, although seemingly misplaced as well, were also quite nice- but it couldn't make up for the ego of this movie.
I think this film would have not instilled so much rage in me if it had not been nominated for so many awards- expecially best film. Beating out so many other movies that far more deserved such an honor was a crime- and will be an even bigger crime if it is bestowed this grand award. Trying to be so 'un-Hollywood' was a mistake. While I can appreciate this idea, and much of what should have come from this movie, I wish I had never wasted my time. This is definitely not the best film of the year and will be forgotten as quickly as Clooney and Travolta's brief appearances. Too artsy for its own good, too pretentious and TOO long. I wish I had a few more good things to say about this movie, since it is seemingly such a beloved movie of the critics, but I just can't. This movie is nothing more than just a scam to make people believe it's deeper than it really is and is deserving of the 7 or however many Oscars it was wastfully nominated...