terrence malick made an excellent 90 minute film adaptation of james jones ' world war ii novel .
unfortunately , he buried it within an overlong and overreaching 3-hour long pseudo - epic .
this is a shame because the film features an outstanding performance by nick nolte .
the best scene is when nick nolte 's character , lt .
col .
tall , is forced to deal with the direct refusal by capt .
staros ( elias koteas ) to execute an order .
nolte 's reaction and transformation may be the best work of his career .
had terrence malick concentrated on the great performances of nolte and koteas as well as those by sean penn , woody harrelson , and john cusack , he could have made a truly great film .
instead , malick saddled the film with plodding pacing , unnecessary flashbacks , and a voice - over narration
all designed to telegraph the great philosophical underpinnings of the story .
the narration was especially annoying as much of it sounded like very bad high school poetry
.
with a lot of editing , the core story could be transformed into a truly classic war film .
hopefully , the dvd version of this film will feature options to suppress the narration , and perhaps will even provide for an alternate , shorter version of the film .
i give this film .
unfortunately , he buried it within an overlong and overreaching 3-hour long pseudo - epic saddled the film with plodding pacing , unnecessary flashbacks , and a voice - over narration this is a shame especially annoying as much of it sounded like very bad high school poetry