There's always the difficulty of watching a film after it's been nominated for Best Picture. Do you overly look for fault or succumb to praising it because you have the Academy to back you up? It can be difficult to get the balance right. Having seen this now, I can say that it is very good in certain aspects, and just good in others. The film is very cold, which of course is aesthetically by design, but it also waits until late on to dangle emotional investment. I believe it's for this reason that it pales in comparison to, say, Saving Private Ryan.

The film offers up fairly generic contrasts between the people running the war and the people fighting it. But it excels in terms of cinematography and in costuming, makeup, the overall production, etc. Very impressively filmed, and the choreography is also authentically performed and decorated. Does it deserve a Best Picture nod? Well, I'd say it does in 2023, but perhaps not in other years. Regardless, I enjoyed it on a basic level of highlighting the pointlessness and bruatlity of war. I was perhaps, at times, more interested in the ceasefire talks, but they are not the focal point.

This was shockingly boring and I could not care about anything that was happening. The characters are not relatable and there's nothing to separate it from other war movies, really. Incredibly disappointing and my least favorite of the best picture nominees so far.

Great story, but told too many times before better. The original and even the tv movie are better. The production values are nice, but this story was never about the war, and it is too tame to its characterizations and themes.

Makes Saving Private Ryan look like a Disney movie

Very well directed, with the Bowser's Castle score being one of the most memorable for a war movie. The scene with the tanks and the flamethrowers was the standout for me. Adding the armistice negotiation which I understand is not in the book, helps add to the overall anti war message. However, the last act feels a little too much for me, I can live with the 10:59 death but trying to steal from the farmer on the day the war is ending was pretty contrived, plus it made one of the most significant deaths in the movie and Paul's rage over it contributing to his own based on their own stupidity rather than just the senselessness of the war. Still on the whole, a strong modern war movie.