It’s a very solid and well made war movie but I feel like you can only watch so many solid and well made war movies in a lifetime. It’s moving at points and  technically superb, but isn’t doing anything new in a very longstanding tradition. 

I’m already not the biggest war movie guy. I feel like so many will show astonishing battle scenes and exhilarating combat until switching on a dime to show slow emotional moments. I think it’s sort of cheap and it shows that the war is almost used as too much of a narrative tool and not treated with the true severity it should be. It’s still solid and easy to admire while remaining fairly impactful, but I’ve never been fully able to commit to a war film that takes place on the front lines (except for Apocalypse Now, my beloved).

It’s also mind blowing that a film this bleak and morose about war is nominated for best picture alongside Top Gun 2, which is quite literally military propaganda. Unequivocally an Academy moment.