Reviews

I first saw this twenty years ago and enjoyed it then. I took it for what it was as dramatized history. I saw it again via a streaming service that said it was an extended director's cut. This time it was 4 hours and 40 minutes long. That is one of my two minor complaints. I had to pause it for a break two times. The second thing for me was that some of the dialog was indistinct and difficult to understand. It was beautifully filmed and I thought it to be well cast. The music seemed to fit, but was sometimes too loud. This is all technical stuff, but sometimes that gets in the way of enjoying the movie. I was not there when any of this happened, so I cannot say how exact it was as to accuracy. In general it matched my memory as to the events from what I have otherwise read. My only observation about the cast members is that Robert Duvall is usually good, but he also usually plays Robert Duvall. I felt his Robert E. Lee was a little off. I believe that Lee began the war as a special advisor and was not immediately made Commander of the army. I think the movie is worth watching. Just remember that it is long and is more about character studies than battle histories.

It is hard for an old man who served to watch a movie like this. While I never served in Viet Nam, I was in the Navy at that time. I knew many who were over there and some who did not come back. The hardest duty I ever had was to be in a funeral color guard. I did not know the story of this Air Force PJ prior to seeing this movie. I assume most, if not all of the movie, is true. I worry about the temptation of writers to make changes for dramatic effect. However, this felt real. The flashback scenes were well placed and well used as a cinematic tool. We must never forget that war is not about countries, but about the young people called upon to fight them. If you want a better understand of that war, watch the movie. I think 99% of the people in the world are just good folks. The other 1% are the leaders that make these dreadful things happen. When the alarm bell sounds the heroes march toward the sound of danger and the politicians invest in war stocks.

It is impossible to make a great movie out of a great book. To take a book like this and do it complete justice a movie would be ten hours long. That is my main, minor complaint. I think the movie was as good as it could be within the constraint I opened with. I think the casting was the strongest part of the overall production. The players fit my view of them. The movie visuals and photography of the area were very good, but did not quite match the excellent descriptions in the book. When they make a movie from a book I am always worried about two things, how much of the book did they have to leave out and what unnecessary things did they add? In this case the things they left out were not necessary to the story and I could nee nothing that was added just for cinematic effect or the arrogance of the writers. My one complaint that keeps my review from being a ten is that they changed the order of things. We lived with these characters in a long linear string and the movie constantly jumped from the present to the past. I guess they wanted a beginning to act as a hook. In a movie that is not needed. I think the movie would mean more to anyone who had not read the book, but those who have read it will not be overly disappointed.

I would say that the writers of this farce were definitely overpaid. This is evidenced by the amount of hallucinatory drugs they could afford to ingest while coming up with this movie. The dialog was dreadful, the plot silly and the plot twists were, well, twisted. The Mighty Thor has been reduced to a "Cartoon" character...he ranks right up there Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. The list of otherwise excellent actors in the film is long and distinguished. If they continue playing these types of gigs they will soon be relegated to the scrap heap of "B", no, make that "C" movies. I thought that having Loki move on was a positive. Now I kind of miss him. Overall the highlight of the film was...well, there were none. Why 2 stars? Well some of the music was not too bad.