Directed by Terrence Malick - 1998 poster
This movie was rather a 'curate's egg' for me. If I was being positive, I would say there were moments of poetry in it; if I was being negative, I would call such scenes pretentious.
The symbolism was laid on rather thickly. It was immediately apparent from the outset, that the halcyon scenes of the two AWOL American servicemen playing with abandon with Melanesian children and the villagers singing a hymn while walking, was a prelude to horrific bits to follow. Sure enough, towards the end, when Pvt. Robert Witt (Jim Caviezel) visits another village, the locals (including the children) are distrustful. Then there is a crocodile, enjoying a float in a very gungy river in the opening sequence; again, towards the end, the crocodile has been captured and is tied up on the back of a truck. Fauré's Requiem (rather like Mahler's music in Death in Venice) hammers home - if a requiem can 'hammer' - all too obviously what the director is trying to say. Apparently, Malick's vision was that of a Paradise Lost, an Eden, being raped by the green poison of war.
What most rankled, I'm afraid, were the cod or trite thoughts 'overlaying' the shooting of the film: Is there an avenging power in Nature? Not one power, but two?...This great Evil, where did it come from? How'd it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Is this darkness in you too? When a soldier is shot,,,, we see a tree explode and a brightly-coloured bird flies out. The camera's focus often just took off from the fighting and soared up into the sky. Once, fair enough; but it became too staged. One critic said it rambled...with glimpses of what a tighter film it might have been.
The problem is that all the above distracted from what was not a bad movie. The actual battle scenes were good (much of it fought in long grass!) and the taking of the hill from the Japanese reminded me slightly of Sergeant York and the Sands of Iwo Jima. I thought three actors stood out from the rest. Jim Caviezel (the actor credited his role as the turning point in his career) was realistic and one understood his sacrifice towards the end.
'Those about to Die'
I thought Nick Nolte as Lt. Col. Gordon Tall was excellent. Permanently on edge, with neck muscles looking like cords, he unburdened himself when he admitted I've waited all my life for this. You don't know what it's like to be passed over. It's my first war. His insecurity and deep resentment meant that he was willing to sacrifice his men's lives to come out on top - in both senses (the actual hill and be victorious). I also found Elias Koteas' portrayal as Captain James Staros very sympathetic. His character was consistent throughout and his facial expressions very 'human' and believable.
The Lieut. Col. harangues his men
Above all, Staros and nearly all the men showed fear, desperation and the grim reality of war. Fighting is terrifying. Why George Clooney got a top billing is beyond me - about three minutes' of rather anaemic posturing summed up his part. Sean Penn, Ben Chaplin and Adrien Brody were adequate. The bringing in of the flashbacks of Chaplin's wife - their time together, then her staring out to sea, on a swing, writing a letter saying she wanted a divorce, may well have happened during a war - but, in an overlong film, this could have been cut with no deleterious effect.
Critics bemoaned the parade of cameos by well-known actors (though, to be fair, the director cut much of their parts); criticised it for being confused and unfinished; and the film's schizophrenia kept it from greatness. It was nominated for 7 Academy Awards but failed to win any. I think a major problem lies in the fact that the director also wrote the script. Never a good idea. Just as a main actor should never direct himself. I enjoyed rather than endured the movie; but I could have jettisoned the 'philosophy' for more action!
2000 DVD
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