Stringer Bell’s review published on Letterboxd:
The cinema of emotional exhaustion and manipulation.
The best cinematography in the world doesn't make this film a masterpiece. It's still quite decent in production but upon deeper reflection it leaves a lot to be desired.
Extremely manipulative and shallow film that is shot and directed so incredibly that it almost masks the real agenda here.
I kept wishing it would end.
The music was horrendous and consistently stripped away any of the nuance that was possible here. Manipulative Is the only word to describe the music choices in this film and the whole film in general.
I'm quite disappointed because the craft is impeccable but there truly was no need for another film like this.
A blatant visual rip off of Come and See and 1917 without any of the amazing passion or skill that made those films great. Sprinkle in some Saving Private Ryan and Fury, without any of the emotionally captivating characters, you have this film.
No coincidence the lead in Come and See, the lead in 1917 and the lead in this all look very similar. Hmm?
You could literally take all the dialogue out of this film and nothing would have changed. A plethora of cookie-cutter , inconsequential conversations and characters. Either it was lost in translation, or the screenplay was lacking.
Think of any cliché dialogue you could think in a war film "Tell my wife I love her" type shit as a character is dying. It's in this film. In every scene.
Didn't care about a single character or plot point.
The most basic run of the mill standard war film released in a long time. It's all just very forgettable. The third adaptation of this novel, and some will probably argue it's a good one due to how impressive this all is visually.
Some extremely cool craft but otherwise a very poor film.
We didn't need this film. All the impeccable skill in the directing, acting and cinematography could have gone to an original idea.
Seen @ TIFF 22 Royal Alexandra Theater
