The futility of war is again writ large before our eyes in this graphic Vietnam drama about a 10-day siege by US airborne troops (the 'screaming eagles') of a hill that no one really cared about and which was forgotten once the battle was over. Sen Edward Kennedy called it 'madness' and he was undoubtedly right. In writer Jim Carabatsos and director John Irvin's account of the battle, though, it seems to take us far too long to get to know the personalities involved. The film gathers pace in the last half hour, with the final assault, but by then its impetus is all but gone. Having said that, some individual scenes are nicely composed by any measure, and the ensemble performances are goodish while lacking in the individual charisma this kind of enterprise demands. The message is once again painfully driven home, however. Perhaps that's all that really matters, in a film that in some respects is so old-fashioned that you almost expect the strains of 'Halls of Montezuma' to thunder after the soldiers.


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