Welcome back to another edition of Adam's Reviews!! **queue in intro music**
Tonight's movie review is the drama The War (1994) where a young Lidia recalls an eventful summer, recounting that time when her twin brother Stu, who is played by someone someone before he was Frodo Baggins, Elijah Wood finds himself learning hard truths about life from his father played by the likeable Kevin Costner. Costner plays Stephen, a tortured soul trying to teach his young son the value of lessons he had learned during the war including positive lessons on social consciousness, but struggles to be a breadwinner for his family due to post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in the Vietnam War. The title not only refers to the Vietnam War, which although relevant to the story, it has a very limited place in the film, has more of a purpose referring to the literal war that the children continuously wage with one another over a treehouse. The war which each kid goes through is figurative in the sense that trying to battle the inner rage within each of them due to battling for identity and purpose.
The film is strong in narrative of the father and son relationship however I found it weird that the film was being narrated by Lidia, as the character herself did not have that much presence and content to be the focal point of the movie. It would have been nice to see this narrative from the brother or both kids to show the duality of each character. The film does well with reflecting on social issues found in this era, including social inequality, the root causes of war and the aftermath of it. To me the kids do well in this film by displaying learning harsh lessons of life and it was smart by the filmmaker to stray away from Costner, even though his character does have a strong influence to the overall story however the performance of the kids demonstrates and correlate with the previous wars experienced by their elders including battling and facing internal and external demons and bullies. The great scene in the movie is the final talk between father and son, where Costner goes to a different level of how a parent should be vulnerable with their child and teach them of the flaws and gaps in life however to understand how life is filled with miracles and these gaps can be filled in by one person's decision. A great example of this would be the 'cotton candy' scene. The only other noticeable supporting character is another kid actor LaToya Chisholm who plays Elvadine and her monologue of how she is struggling both at a domestic and social level is amazing - awesome job. Also a great nod to late 60s and early 70s tunes. An underrated flick with a strong story around the kids with great support by Costner, overall 7/10.
Tonight's movie review is the drama The War (1994) where a young Lidia recalls an eventful summer, recounting that time when her twin brother Stu, who is played by someone someone before he was Frodo Baggins, Elijah Wood finds himself learning hard truths about life from his father played by the likeable Kevin Costner. Costner plays Stephen, a tortured soul trying to teach his young son the value of lessons he had learned during the war including positive lessons on social consciousness, but struggles to be a breadwinner for his family due to post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in the Vietnam War. The title not only refers to the Vietnam War, which although relevant to the story, it has a very limited place in the film, has more of a purpose referring to the literal war that the children continuously wage with one another over a treehouse. The war which each kid goes through is figurative in the sense that trying to battle the inner rage within each of them due to battling for identity and purpose.
The film is strong in narrative of the father and son relationship however I found it weird that the film was being narrated by Lidia, as the character herself did not have that much presence and content to be the focal point of the movie. It would have been nice to see this narrative from the brother or both kids to show the duality of each character. The film does well with reflecting on social issues found in this era, including social inequality, the root causes of war and the aftermath of it. To me the kids do well in this film by displaying learning harsh lessons of life and it was smart by the filmmaker to stray away from Costner, even though his character does have a strong influence to the overall story however the performance of the kids demonstrates and correlate with the previous wars experienced by their elders including battling and facing internal and external demons and bullies. The great scene in the movie is the final talk between father and son, where Costner goes to a different level of how a parent should be vulnerable with their child and teach them of the flaws and gaps in life however to understand how life is filled with miracles and these gaps can be filled in by one person's decision. A great example of this would be the 'cotton candy' scene. The only other noticeable supporting character is another kid actor LaToya Chisholm who plays Elvadine and her monologue of how she is struggling both at a domestic and social level is amazing - awesome job. Also a great nod to late 60s and early 70s tunes. An underrated flick with a strong story around the kids with great support by Costner, overall 7/10.