I find myself out of alignment with previous commenters on this one. Let's see: "A perfect study of those who share this fate given by wonderful cast and crew" Perfect? No flaws? Come on.
"A powerful film about friendship and relations" I wish it had been. The script failed to draw us in and make us care about the characters.
"A Powerful and Thought-Provoking Character Study" No it wasn't. It could have been. Each character was a cliché. And worse, instead of letting the viewer make their minds up, the script is busy telling us, in case we missed it.
The above comments were taken from people who gave this movie 10 out of 10. That's a PERFECT score. A flawless movie. Had they rated it an 8 or 9, then you could expect there to be a difference in taste, in expectation.
The acting isn't bad, as much as the script allows it, and the story has a decent premise, but the story relies to much on the audience being American, and the feelings that come with drafts, wars, Duty to country.
In the end, this movie attempt to set a mood results in it being too slow and too shallow. It is presented by formula driven characters. A character study it is not. It leaves huge holes in the characters at the same time as it is spoon feeding us the obvious.
5 out of 10 because the acting is good, the cinematography is good, but it gets dragged down by the script.