Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

namashi_1 Jon Avnet's 1994 flick 'The War' begins well, has a nice hearty message to convey and great performances working for it, but it's screenplay goes for a toss. The final 20-25 minutes are flawed, and one wonders was this drag even needed? 'The War' tells the story of a family, who are not in the best shape. The head of the family was a part of the Vietnam War, his wife suffered, and their kids are warring with their fellow aged people.'The War' has a wonderful first hour, in fact the portions between Elijah Wood and Kevin Costner are memorable and highly emotional. And their performances elevate those sequences. But the writing gets very weak in the final 20-25 minutes. It loses the pace completely, and even the honest moral the film tries to convey goes over-looked. The writing should've been more sharper! Jon Avnet's direction is decent. The dialogue at places, are lovely. Cinematopgraphy is perfect. Performances are top-notch: Kevin Costner and Elijah Wood are via for top honors, for their 'Tour De Force' portrayals. Mare Winningham and Lexi Faith Randall are excellent as well.On the whole, an honest film, that gets chum-bled up towards it's culmination. Nevertheless, it easily stands as a one-time watch!

trrichey4 I sat down tonight to watch this movie and was amazed at the heroic story it shares with the viewer. Kevin Costner is one of my favorite actors his quite presence speaks volumes. You can look in his eyes and feel like you completely understand his character. Elijah Wood is outstanding. I love the different relationships and how the story blends everything together especially the relationship between the three girls as well as the father and son relationship. Every one of these actors got the performance perfect. The message this movie shares is beyond words. Excellent actors excellent writers and directors I highly recommend this video for the whole family. This is one of those videos you could watch a second time and enjoy just as much if not more.

shoshi1108 I rarely like movies about the South because we're portrayed as stupid hillbillies, brainless boobs. But this movie treats us with respect, there is a loving tenderness to it's portrayal. I watched this movie because of Kevin Costner and loved it because of Elijah Wood's performance. There were a lot of great performances by both the children and the adults. I read the comments about preaching and sentimentality, well we tend to be a bit sentimental in the South and I make no apologies for that. This movie deserves to be seen by a wider audience. I like a big blockbuster as well as the next person but I love these smaller, character driven films. They stick in my mind and I mull them around for a while. I've watched this one many times and I still love it. The casting was perfect, Elijah was superb. The actress that played Elvadean stole every scene she was in. I realize some may think the Lipnicki's were hillbillies, but they were limited by their upbringing and would have behaved that way no matter where they lived. Whenever I spot Reinor Scheine in a movie I think about his portrayal of the Lipnicki's daddy. Unfortunately, I know someone distressingly like him. This movie is well worth watching.

jparker-20 As a teacher of scriptwriting I am using this film to demonstrate the art of dialog writing in a setting students and viewers don't see often. The dialog is authentic to the deep south, believable, has just the right amount of profanity and colloquial terminology, and is character specific. You can't easily exchange the speeches between characters and have scenes that work despite the fact all the characters are from the same rural community--try it and you'll see what I mean. In addition, the structure of the film is a fascinating study with its multi-layered plotting and casual way the story begins to unfold. At first, it seems this is a film without a plot--just a series of character studies--but the plotting eventually becomes apparent and its complex structure involves the viewer without grabbing you with a hook or obvious "problem to solve." Overall it's a fine example of how to write an involving, insightful message film.