I first saw this film when it was screened on the small screen by the BBC here in the UK a couple of years ago.
When I saw it in the company of my then girlfriend, I wasn't aware of Oliver Stone's involvement and, frankly, I think that's for the good as I could quite easily have flipped channels having pre-judged it as YAHWF ("Yet Another Hollywood War Film").
Fortunately, I stuck with it and it opened my eyes to a war that was, by and large, merely seen as an inconvenience to many would-be holidaymakers here in Britain.
Whilst reported ad-infinitum by the mass media here, making the phrase "ethnic-cleansing" into an everyday term, it wasn't until I saw this film that I fully appreciated what this meant.
It's a hard film that brought me a sense of remoteness, helplessness, futility and anger.
There have been few other films I've seen that made caused me to weep (big, macho guy that I am ;-)), particularly those that are often mis-labelled as "war movies" -- "The Killing Fields" being another of this ilk -- when, in fact, they're really (if we're labelling things) human interest films that come about because of a war or conflict.
Dennis Quaid is, to me, one of those actors who isn't hugely prolific in the projects he gets involved in and I actually found it difficult to think of other titles of his that I'd seen. A quick skim through IMDb and a couple of them stand out for me, films I've thoroughly enjoyed and would happily see again; "The Right Stuff" and "Enemy Mine". This is, without doubt, the best I've seen him in.
When I saw it in the company of my then girlfriend, I wasn't aware of Oliver Stone's involvement and, frankly, I think that's for the good as I could quite easily have flipped channels having pre-judged it as YAHWF ("Yet Another Hollywood War Film").
Fortunately, I stuck with it and it opened my eyes to a war that was, by and large, merely seen as an inconvenience to many would-be holidaymakers here in Britain.
Whilst reported ad-infinitum by the mass media here, making the phrase "ethnic-cleansing" into an everyday term, it wasn't until I saw this film that I fully appreciated what this meant.
It's a hard film that brought me a sense of remoteness, helplessness, futility and anger.
There have been few other films I've seen that made caused me to weep (big, macho guy that I am ;-)), particularly those that are often mis-labelled as "war movies" -- "The Killing Fields" being another of this ilk -- when, in fact, they're really (if we're labelling things) human interest films that come about because of a war or conflict.
Dennis Quaid is, to me, one of those actors who isn't hugely prolific in the projects he gets involved in and I actually found it difficult to think of other titles of his that I'd seen. A quick skim through IMDb and a couple of them stand out for me, films I've thoroughly enjoyed and would happily see again; "The Right Stuff" and "Enemy Mine". This is, without doubt, the best I've seen him in.