harrowing masterpiece sheer madness despair war fires plain nobi going everybodys taste war movie truest possible sense term one resorts neither flagwaving patriotism saccharine sentimentality nobi cuts deep ugly tenebrous bleak things ever committed celluloid ever be war behind cannons triumphs heroes moral victories defeats had handful gaunt terriblelooking men strewn across land ravaged war like penitents fleeing great disaster characters defy moral judgment creatures beset great woe woe permit questions moral nature war survival pitting ones others battlefield arena loser simply removed existencebr br tamura soldier japanese imperial army discharged platoon ordered report nearby hospital account coughing blood disliked rest platoon hes told never come back instead commit suicide hand grenade case hospital rejects him does hospital nothing shack made wooden planks hospital surgeon simply tells hes capable walking hes fine shabby excuse hospital one harrowing scenes film takes place area carpet bombed american planes doctors walk sustain flee hospital woods moments hospital blown pieces gaunt crippled figures sick injured crawl every manner posture dressed sickly white robes building kind beast spewing viscera filth upon earthbr br that nobis greatest success stark brooding depiction suffering war simple evocative images without melodrama pseudoheroism soldiers cross marsh wading kneedeep mud move across opposite bank field discover enemy tanks hiding woods lights shining like malignant eyes scan dark procession injured soldiers dirty halfmad crossing road dropping ground sound enemy planes buzzards feasting pile dead bodies abandoned village mad soldier believes buddha sitting tree covered flies excrement offering arm eaten tamura hes dead images kon ichikawa conjures eyes merciless unflinching poignancy honest rawbr br nobi rush get somewhere content follow tamuras travels wartorn land tries reach regrouping center palompa observe madness obscenities war movie wades sludge horror war slow brooding like characters follows final thirty minutes tamura taking refuge two deserters feed monkey meat closest nobi comes adhering conventional narratives theyre less powerful matter strikingly photographed black white great performances cast ichikawas assured direction nobi among best war movies made also among finest japanese cinema