Bright white clouds fly quickly over the heads of the soldiers, giving them what seems to be a halo. Sand and debris from explosions flies out right into the camera until you can see the individual grains. The continually varying styles lend an air of uneasiness to the movie. One of the main themes is the wrongfulness of violence. When bullets are shot, the camera angle follows that of the bullet from the muzzle of the gun to the sickening moment when it enters the body.
People fall in agony to the ground in slow motion, as their blood drains onto the sand.
Each scene of death evokes a visceral reaction, much like the scene in A Clockwork Orange where Malcolm MacDowell is forced to watch horrible scenes of violence while listening to Beethoven. As viewers, we get the same feelings as Barlow, Chief, and Banks. Sadly, the second act of the film becomes the more conventional action movie. Everything picks up around the end, until the very end, which teeters on cheesy. The acting is competent all around.