Powerful World War 2 epic, nominated for seven Academy Awards and boasting a top-quality cast. Set in the Pacific, this beautifully shot drama follows the lives, and deaths, of an American army rifle company through months of battles as they attempt to capture an otherwise idyllic island from the Japanese. Some truly tense action during the men's various missions, but this is basically a moral tale of the horror and futility of war. Nick Nolte is particularly good as a big, bad and possibly unhinged colonel.