I understand the objections my friends had to it. It does take an odd, though stunningly beautiful, PBS-nature-special-meets-Platoon tack, sort of like, "War is a brutal, dehumanizing -- Oh! Pretty tree!" The philosophical voice-overs become irritating pretty quickly and are neither insightful nor particularly cogent. And I can see how people could get confused by the different characters, since half of them are dark-haired, handsome young men (no complaints here). I could tell them apart mainly because I spent much time gazing at the photos of them in my movie magazines. There are too many characters to keep track of, and at least 4 of them could easily merit their own movie -- I did feel a bit shortchanged at the lack of development. Plus, there's not really much of what you could call a plot.
But from the first minute, I was sucked into the dazed, fever-dream world that Terrence Malick creates. Either it grabs you or it doesn't, I guess, and it got me. The tight, hand-held camera shots make you feel like you're there, crawling through the tall grass with the soldiers. By the time the movie ended, I felt like I'd been watching it for a week, and I don't mean that in a bad way -- I felt like I'd been through a lot with these men, even though I barely knew anything about them.
Part of the reason I wished it had been broken into four separate but interlocking movies is the performances that, with more screen time, could have been truly sensational. Jim Caviezel is wonderful as the dreamy, strangely serene Pvt. Witt, who seems unaffected by the chaos around him. Nick Nolte does a fine turn as a growly colonel who's willing to sacrifice his troops for his personal advancement, as does Elias Koteas as the moral captain who is Nolte's diametric opposite. Ben Chaplin does his bedroom-eyed thing as Pvt. Bell, who gets through the war by thinking of the wife waiting for him at home. Also, John Cusack is in it -- he doesn't really do anything, but I have to mention him because he's one of my Trinity of Perfect Men.
Malick stages some tremendous scenes. My favorites were a terrific battle scene where Cusack leads a small group of men against a Japanese bunker -- it was more thrilling than anything in Saving Private Ryan -- and a brief, poignant conversation toward the end of the film between the gentle Caviezel and Sean Penn's world-weary sergeant, who cares about Caviezel almost against his will.
I recommend it, but I can understand why people wouldn't like it if they don't become as immersed in it as I did. For that reason, I'd recommend seeing it on the big screen; it would be hard to create that kind of spell on a TV.
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