In Love and War (1996): Dir: Richard Attenborough / Cast: Chris O'Donnell, Sandra Bullock, MacKenzie Astin, Ingrid Lacey, Alan Bennett: Here is one of the stupider more manipulative war films that is more about somebody attempting to get into someone else's pants. Technically well made yet cheats viewers with its pathetic tearjerker ending. Chris O'Donnell stars as a soldier torn between the love of the nurse and the hate of the war around him. He is shot in the leg during World War 1 and spends the remainder of the film within a boring romance with a nurse until arriving at an ending that should grant every viewer their money back. Directed by Richard Attenborough with realistic yet graphic images of war. He previously made Gandhi and Chaplin so this is a major step down. O'Donnell and Sandra Bullock are hardly convicting because they are used to jerk viewers around with their romantic bullshit as oppose to address real issues regarding the war. In bland supporting roles are MacKenzie Astin and Ingrid Lacey who can only hope that this garbage isn't the end for them in terms of their careers. Had the film concentrated on conditions of victims, hospitals and effects of the war then it might have been convicting but it sidetracks that by turning the concept into romantic drivel in its peep show depravity. As it is it is more war than love. Score: 3 / 10
Review of In Love and War
