Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bravo to Don Johnson; the screenplay could have been better., August 3, 2004
"Word of Honor" was a bestselling Nelson DeMille novel, and in my opinion it was perhaps DeMille's best novel. In fact, "Word of Honor" was (and is) one of my very favorite novels of all time. Accordingly, when the TV-movie was released, nothing could have kept me from seeing it.
First the good news. Don Johnson IS Benjamin Tyson, the main protagonist of the novel. Johnson captures the role perfectly, and whatever the shortcomings here, Johnson deserves kudos.
The bad news is that the script is, quite simply, hurried and rushed. "Word of Honor" is a complicated, dramatic, and touching story, that includes fascinating personality clashes and interplay between a number of well-defined and utterly lifelike characters. The TV-movie (and DVD) version skips most of this. The Karen Harper character is one-dimensional, and they completely delete the role of Colonel Pierce, who is so pivotal in the novel. Instead Harper is both investigator and prosecutor, which detracts and not adds to the film. Likewise Vincent Corva, defense counsel in the novel--he is absent here, although the actor who plays defense counsel turns in a decent performance. All in all, the pace is rushed and for this reason the film lacks the depth and complexity of the novel. While this is often inevitable when a superb novel becomes screenplay, this film is an extreme version of this.
This novel should have been the "Caine Mutiny" of our time, with a commensurately good film. It is not.
The court-martial portion of the novel was absolutely excellent. Here, it was rushed, and contained many technical inaccuracies. The military judge in the film, in particular, simply did not behave in the manner characteristic of military jurists.
On the other hand, I am almost certainly evaluating this film with a heavy hand and critical eye. I loved the novel. I wanted to love this film. Instead, I only liked it. Despite my criticisms, I believe most viewers will find this film to be an enjoyable viewing experience.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
disappointing, July 7, 2004
By A Customer
I give this movie 3 stars only because I loved the book sooooo much. I re-read the book about once a year. I ended up getting a second copy because the first one was being kept together with a rubber band.The book is truely about a man who gave his word of honor to his men only to have every one of them break their word. It was an incredible book with powerful emotions and images. All of this was lost in the movie. If the premise of the movie/book interests you, please read the book first. If you see the movie first, you are unlikely to have any interest is reading the book.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mistakes are too big, January 8, 2005
I wasn't expecting this movie to be a fantastic summer blockbuster, however, like the summer blockbuster Bourne Identity that butchered Ludlum's original work in ways that can't be chalked up to time restraints or dramatic license, this made for tv quality movie fell fall short of what it could have accomplished given the overall brilliance of the book it was based upon.
Besides missing the point behind the book, missing the real conflict behind the book, missing in fact much of the book, this movie missed the boat on several factual items that couldn't have happened even in their reinvention of the plot. One of the silly things they had was the main character, after he was recalled to active duty as an officer so that he could undergo a court martial, out mowing the lawn on base. Now, I may not be up to speed on the current military, although I just got back from a basic training graduation for my son and I was shocked that they trained side by side with women so I realize its changed, however, I don't think that the presumption of innocence part of law has changed so to have an officer out mowing the lawn, like he was a pfc doing extra duty under an Article Fifteen, tends to show me that the writers here had their heads, umm, up their, no rather, in the sand...
Look, I don't expect perfection, but when some guy writes an epic novel, and then someone decides, hey, this is good, we should make a movie, doesn't anyone think that maybe the reason that the story should be made into a movie is because it's a good story and if the script writers want to change history, maybe they should write their own book.
Okay, I'm almost done ranting here, but one more point, and caution, this might be a hair of a spoiler, but not by much. The movie version has the protagonist being convicted for something he wasn't even charged with. Now, I'm all for poetic license and such, but give me a break, this was like a guy being indicted for killing his mother in law and then being found guilty for being rude to his wife. It made absolutely no sense, and while I say again, I understand that some changes need to be made to make a huge novel into a tv special, I don't understand how it could be allowed to make such glaring and stupid mistakes.
Anyway, if you read the book, you can skip the movie, unless you're just curious, if you haven't read the book, I suggest it first. If you have no intention of reading the book, and are just wondering if it's a decent movie, well, my two star rating my be tainted by my feelings, so I'll say this, it wasn't completely a failure. I would rent it, however, nothing here is worth seeing twice.
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