Go read the novel!

Rating: 6/10 (15 February 2006)

First off, I'm not one of those perpetually whining people who watch book adaptations looking for excuses to rant about how inconsistent the adaptation was and such. In this case it was the opposite, I only even knew there WAS a book after watching the movie.
So, I caught it on cable, and thought if it wasn't one of the greatest (anti)-war movies, it was right below them (like a Top 5 runner up). So I looked James Jones' novel up, looking for more of that insightful soulful search amidst the chaos ("if I never meet you in this life, then let me feel the lack"), and what I found was the extreme opposite, on hindsight realizing how lame this movie adaptation was when compared to it, or to the all-time anti-war favorites "Platoon", "Apocalypse Now" or "Full Metal Jacket" (or even "Band of Brothers", whether book or TV series). Now, mind you, it's not the case of concessions having to be made in the translation of one medium to the other, but rather of the writing/direction going to lengths to contradict the original in all it's main points!
Overall, I believe this movie version (it left me very much curious to see the 1964 one) could be summed up as being about the finding and preserving of one's humanity amidst all the chaos and dehumanization of warfare, being the heroic plight of the foot soldier under the whims of "the high brass". Jones' book, however, could be summed up in 2 or 3 main points:
-There's absolutely no heroics, only a collective unspoken lie, and absolutely everything that happens in military life, every action taken from the private to the general, is dictated by petty and boyish locker-room competition, pissing-contest style. Every character, even the more likable, is utterly petty and despicable to a greater or lesser degree; even Bell or Fife, who are portrayed as the most consciously sensible and least inhumane in C-for-Charlie, still dictate their every move by the role-playing of the general facade and bickering.
-UNIMPORTANCE and NUMBNESS, both emphasized throughout: the sheer and absolute unimportance of oneself and one's actions, with the progressive numbness of body and  more importantly  mind, a last ditch shelter from feelings, till one does become the hollow fighting MACHINE a soldier is supposed to be.
-Yes there is horror in war, the worst of which is to be found not without but within, in the realization of one's own actions (like the gold teeth hunting in dead bodies) and attitudes to everything witnessed.
So, whereas the book brutally succeeds in being and x-ray exposing the ugly underbelly of warfare and military life, the movie becomes a seemingly censored version affirming the very things the book condemns! The godlessness and meaninglessness is replaced by the soulful search of an inner haven; the Captain's doubt of whether his refusal to carry on a suicide charge was in fear for himself or for his men is replaced by a wholesome fatherly love and caring for his men; the covert homosexuality (or rather the manly guys' "helping each other out") is downright omitted; the list goes on.
Down to specifics (meaning HERE BE SPOILERS), no, there's no weirdly nonsensical but noble sacrifice by Witt (Jim Caviezel) to give an uplifting and transcendental climax to the movie; Witt is a whimsical self-important who storms out of the Company (he's actually long been transferred out of it) like a spoiled brat whenever he doesn't agree with something, only to sheepishly come back time and time again. The book ends with him contentedly as a Squad Sergeant, and the overall tone that, unless you are evacuated through a medical loophole, the drudgery will go on through the next campaign, and the next, right unto the grave. Neither there are those long exchanges about God, Man and World between an all-loving, tree-hugging Witt and a cynic, nihilistic atheist-who-wants-to-believe Welsh (Sean Penn, otherwise perfect on the role with his perpetual sardonic sneer). That's simply NOT THE POINT of the story!
The chance of bringing to the wider popcorn-chewing public who'd never pick up a meager 500-page book this disturbingly thought-inspiring deconstruction of standards was wasted, for the sake of making one more movie that tells you more of the same: "war is hell, but deep down it brings out the noblest in man". A pity.