easily positive for a film by director we will continue to grow to admire . but do not watch this movie expect to be entertain . ang lee take an objective look at a relatively unexplored aspect of the civil war . what be beautiful about the movie and like all of lee film and be that he doesn not side with his character . he create character and embodies them with life and problem and and ambiguity . and endow them with a reality that often hit far closer to home than with which many be comfortable . this film have action and but it be not for the action lover since the violence be deeply disturbing and far from gratuitous . i. e. like the character and it be real . and a you would expect about one of mankind most horrific war and the violence be horrific . but a an exploration of the great human ambiguity that surely dwell within the civil war and it be a masterpiece . be the war about slavery and an abolitionism . lee seem quite willing to blur that line make so popular in depiction like the blue and the grey . neither be about idealism and though and a see in go with the wind . it be about freedom and about the desire to have something which be yours and to fight for it . a you watch the character and you will ask yourself how can they be fight to preserve slavery . the fact be and i do not think they really be and and in that the film show the problem of why so many be catch up in the maelstrom of the civil war . the fact seem clear that many of the character we learn about be fight out of sens of loyalty to home though they may never have examine what home represent or whether they truly espouse it value . the letter scene be very move and yet subtle . jake and daniel be other example of loyalty stretch to the limit . and when the tension finally snap and and these character find themselves suddenly free . we see the birth of new men . all this mixed in with lee beautiful incorporation of humankind environment with breathtaking vista and frame . lee have a style which be his and somehow european in it art ( a slow camera and unrushed ) and asian in it epic ness and development of story and and yet somehow familiar and easily accessible to so many in north american . relax and let go of your preconception about what the civil war be and what the western a a genre be and what a war movie should be . and let ang lee take you into a world so fragile and so hard and so real that few of u can comfortably see it . in this and lee continue what he work in ice storm . again and the movie be slow paced and without apparent direction . a sure sign of lee ability to direct without impose himself on the story or screen . his direction be amplify by what he bring out of jewel ( yes and the singer ) and a hitherto unproven actress who put in an amazing performance . a movie for those who love film and be not lover of the standard hollywood epic .