"Reclusive director Terrence Malick returned to the big screen after a 20-year absence to make an epic World War II movie the same year as Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. Malick's first two films, Badlands and Days of Heaven, were widely praised for beautifully capturing rich characters with grandiose ideals, and this theme is again explored in the tumultuous setting of wartime Pacific Islands. Using the old ""War is Hell"" adage, Malick uses an all-star cast to remind viewers that beauty and self-doubt still exist in times of horror and complex violence. Based on James Jones' novel of the same name, the story is more an intimate character drama than a loud action film. The story centers on an army unit called Charlie Company whose members are brought into the Pacific island of Guadalcanal. Filled with fear and self-doubt, these men have to prove their courage and abilities in an event that is bigger than all of them. Unlike Saving Private Ryan, the film is more an exploration of the inner dialogues instead of tactical maneuvering. They're not searching outwardly for a person (like Ryan) but inwardly for the courage to keep going. Like Malick's other films, it juxtaposes the beauty of its environments with the ugly realities of the time. The all-star cast includes many Hollywood heavies, including George Clooney, Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, and John Travolta, but the story really focuses on Nick Nolte as Colonel Tall and Sean Penn as First Sergeant Welsh, two tortured men dealing with the demons in their past as well as the ones on the battleground."