THE WAR
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1994 James Berardinelli
Rating (0 to 10): 7.7
Date Released: 11/4/94 Running Length: 2:04 Rated: PG-13 (Violence, language)
Starring: Elijah Wood, Kevin Costner, Mare Winningham, Lexi Randall,
LaToya Chisholm
Director: Jon Avnet
Producers: Jon Avnet and Jordan Kerner
Screenplay: Kathy McWorter
Cinematography: Geoffrey Simpson
Music: Thomas Newman
Released by Universal Pictures
Both the strength and weakness of THE WAR is its inability to let pass an opportunity to teach a lesson. At times, to the film's benefit, this sermonizing is seamlessly integrated into the story. On other occasions, it sticks out like a proverbial sore thumb, since there's nothing more uncomfortable or obvious than when a moral calls attention to itself.
The primary theme of THE WAR is that violence, irrespective of its motivation, is never justified. To illustrate this point, the movie takes us to 1970 Mississippi and introduces Stephen Simmons (Kevin Costner), a Vietnam Vet who lost pieces of his soul halfway across the world when, to save his own life, he left behind a dying friend. Since then, he has attempted to reconstruct a shattered life, encouraging his two children, Stu (Elijah Wood) and Lidia (Lexi Randall), to follow his pacifist example and searching to re-establish a bond with his wife Lois (Mare Winningham).
Stu and Lidia, however, aren't sold on the non-violent way, especially as it applies to their ongoing feud with the Lipnicki clan, a group of local bullies who delight in picking on those less physically gifted. When the Lipnickis decide to claim a tree fort built by Stu, Lidia, and their friends, their actions precipitate an-out battle.
The anti-war stance taken by THE WAR works primarily because of a tremendous performance from a potentially unlikely source: Kevin Costner. As was the case in A PERFECT WORLD, the actor impresses by underplaying his less-than-heroic role. As long as Stephen is on screen, the message never threatens to overwhelm the story. The character, rendered by Costner with subtlety and care, is searching for redemption; he wants his children to learn life's harsh truths before they ever reach that point.
To a lesser degree, THE WAR imparts the lesson that racism is bad. Unfortunately, it does this in an annoyingly heavy-handed manner by having Lidia come to the defense of her black friend (LaToya Chisholm) when a teacher tries to relegate the "colored" children to the back of the classroom. The young white girl gives an impassioned--and obviously scripted--speech about ignorance. While it's impossible to argue with the sentiment, the presentation is flawed.
In addition to Costner's effective performance, Mare Winningham, Lexi Randall, and LaToya Chisholm are all solid and believable, easily holding their own in crucial scenes. Elijah Wood is somewhat less successful. For him, several emotional outbursts appear rehearsed. This is a step up from NORTH for the young actor, but his work here doesn't equal that of THE ADVENTURES OF HUCK FINN.
Jon Avnet, whose previous feature was FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, recaptures a great deal of the "feel" of that 1992 release here (including a heavy dose of maudlin, manipulative sentiment). The '70s tone is aided by an unnecessary and occasionally-intrusive soundtrack that may have been "inspired" by the success of the FORREST GUMP CD.
Whatever failings THE WAR may exhibit, however, it is still solid entertainment, and there are moments of sublime beauty and rare power. Even at its most affecting and manipulative, the film never strays from its message or allows its high production values to decline, and that's a lot more than can be said of a great deal of other current theatrical releases.
- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews