There are some powerful images — of scared and tired soldiers in France, of bloody wounds and shattered limbs in London — but the film’s treatment of the war has a detached, secondhand feeling. And even the most impressive sequences have an empty, arty virtuosity. The impression left by a long, complicated battlefield tracking shot is pretty much “Wow, that’s quite a tracking shot,” when it should be “My God, what a horrible experience that must have been.”

尽管影片呈现了一些震撼的影像——在法兰西惊恐疲惫的士兵、血肉模糊的残肢断臂，对战争的处理是超然和间接的。即便最骇人的连续镜头也透出空洞做作的技巧性。复杂的战地推轨长镜头给人的印象不过是“噢！真是个长镜头呵！”而绝非“上帝！这真是惨绝人寰啊！”