It's a terrific war yarn, a picture of palpable raw power which manages both Intense intimacy and great scope at the same time.

Visually and philosophically, it's Fuller's equivalent of Kurosawa's Kagemusha, although Fuller's film is more complex, more absurd and more haunted.

Although these are the stock characters of war drama - the sage, grizzled Sarge, the farm boy, the street kid, the nice guy who doesn't want to kill anyone and the witness - Fuller's are particularly credible ordinary people.

A well-meaning but ineffectual movie by a director in over his depth and way past his prime.