Yeah, this is pretentious. And what makes it worse is that in all of it's art house pomp, it doesn't come across so much as anti-war as it does anti- stopping the Japanese and Germans from their genocidal bid for world domination. It was like they were saying that they are devoutly on the left... so much so that they support the axis powers if only because the alternative is the United States and Democracy and that is somehow more... fascist(?). I don't know, the film suffers from schizophrenia and the message gets lost when you realize that it's a World War II story and not a Vietnam story and that it is kind of taking the wrong side of WWII in it's effort to call America a fascist nation. But, you get pointless meandering diatribes and A-list actors in a horrible movie. The good news is that it looks pretty... but I don't think the final product is what the writer of this and From Here to Eternity had in mind.

This is a captivating and stunningly photographed depiction of the horrors of jungle warfare. Jim Caviezel is "Witt" - apprehended from some unofficial leave by his Sergeant "Welsh" (Sean Penn) and is interned aboard a troop ship pending court-martial. All of that due process is soon abandoned as their squad is assigned to take an important hill position from an entrenched Japanese force on Guadalcanal. It is a very untypical film, this - whilst there is certainly plenty of action, pyrotechnics, bullets (and limbs) flying all round, this is a much more cerebral look at the impact of war. The claustrophobia - even in the open air - of people who neither lived nor slept in peace or safety for weeks on end; their weariness and exhaustion, their dedication, bravery and - it has to be said, moments of fear and doubt is presented to us using some strong and potent characterisations. Even the moments of victory are tempered with sorrow and reality - the opposing forces are humanised to an extent that makes this whole thought-provoking story more poignant. Penn is good, as is their overbearing CO "Col. Tail" (Nick Nolte) and a strong ensemble cast of faces - famous and less so - sustain this well for much of the almost three hours it is on screen. What struck me most about the settings were just how inherently hostile they were to human beings at the best of times, and yet there we were fighting over them - palm tress and beautifully coloured birds!