The Battle of Guadalcanal is Not in This Film

Rating: 4/10 (16 August 1999)

[WARNING: A movie review cannot be written without "spoilers." You have been warned. As extra comment, IMDB can shove their blacklist.]
This film makes the predictable dead end by attempting an artsy war film. War is hell. It has been said that this film depicts war through the eyes of poets and writers. Consider this, would you want to peer at poetry through the eyes of an eighteen year old G.I?
The viewer is in trouble from the start, as the film maker attempts to craft, "another world." This world is the idyllic realm of native people who live their care free life while technological nations attempt to blow themselves apart. This cliche is so tired that it amazes me how often it is repeated, with the usual disastrous effects.
The "War is Bad" theme is propped up and replayed throughout the entire film. The vehicle is a plodding narrative which produces a sleep like stupor for the viewer. Of course, one can overcome this affect if we take the high moral ground the film attempts to achieve and claim it as our own. Interestingly enough, this tact is risk free and much easier than the difficulties that the subjects of the film are presented with. Nice try, but I'm not biting.
Sanctimonious humbug is not my strong suite. The fact is Guadalcanal was beyond nasty. However, there was a reason U.S. forces were there in strength and Japanese troops defended the island so desperately. These reasons did not involve a sadistic attempt to "blow the world up," as the gasbag film makers would have you believe.
Despite these flaws which are fatal to the film, Nick Nolte and John Cusack deliver strong performances which are to be commended. However, they are not enough to save the film.