Rating of
3.5/4
Very Good POW Movie
Alex - wrote on 12/11/07
From the beginning of the year, I have anticipated seeing this movie. It was briefly in theaters (5 days in my area) and I never had a chance to watch it. It was praised by many critics and hailed as a great movie by some. Finally, I got a chance to see this very good movie.
Though not the best picture of the year, it does have some very real scenes. What I mean, is that I felt like I was in the POW camp. Christian Bale pushed himself into the "my favorite actor" spot on my profile (not because of this performance, but because of so many). Greg Zahn even did a decent job. I would definitely rank this in the top 10 though I am not a movie critic that sees 100's of movies a year.
There are two basic scenes in the film, that in the POW camp and that out in the real world. The POW camp scenes were decent, though to me, it didn't look like he was tortured that much (compared to "The Deer Hunter) but he did go through some tough times. The musical score was above average though nothing special and the cinematography was decent.
So what makes this film great is Bale and the fact that this is a true story of true survival. Though I don't think it was the best movie of the year, it was better than American Gangster and should have been given more screen time as I am sure it would have been much better there rather than at home while my wife is trying to watch "The Hills."
