This won Best Picture? Aside from the Frank Sinatra subplot, absolutely nothing in this movie drew me in. I was unimpressed and bored by the romances, and everything seemed very scattered, with too many stories wandering around. I think the final few scenes were probably supposed to tie everything together, but it was too little, too late for me. This was just one of those movies that did nothing for me. Disappointing. 2 stars.
Flickchart: #1418 out of 1863, below Four Weddings and a Funeral and above Apocalypto.
2 comments:
I can appreciate your criticisms here, but I find myself disagreeing. I do think it's a bit overlong and has some pacing issues, but there's something about knowing that the Japanese attack is looming over everything that makes the film awfully tense. Even in the lighter scenes, it was hard to relax and just laugh because there was the pervasive awareness that everyone was doomed.
Ernest Borgnine's belligerent bully is one of the most infuriating screen villains I can recall watching. Every scene he's in, I just wanted someone to put him in his place! He needled not only Sinatra's character, but me by proxy.
I liked that there was such conflict between the characters, and that there were so many different motivations and ambitions. It was particularly bold to show a United States military that wasn't all one cohesive unit of good guys. Even now in 2013, that's kind of a murky area for storytelling.
The final act, recreating the attack itself, is very well shot. To be honest, I found it more compelling than actual footage I've seen from that infamous day. Sometimes fiction has more freedom to engage us than reality, and I think that's true here.
Hmmm. I hadn't thought about the attack lending a doomed atmosphere to the whole picture. Maybe someday if I ever watch it again, I'll have to focus myself in on that and see if it alters how I feel about it.
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