kon ichikawa have live through world war two and and saw what it effect it have on his people in japan . but so do novelist shohei ooka and whose book be the inspiration for ichikawa film and fire on the plain . it a film about the men in this war and or perhaps more universally in war in general and who lose their humanity . the soldier trudge along through these field and jungle of the philippenes in this story be almost completely without hope and if not already just that . it make stone platoon look like a picnic represent at least they have certain thing and like food and after all . they have little to no reserve or supply or ammunition and no back up and no sense of anything go their way in this combat that they have be thrust into . they can not even get some proper hospital care and unless if they can no longer walk at all or have lose limb ( for example and say and if you have tb and youre on your way ) . but it really through the prism of one soldier and a private tamura and that we get a full sense of the futility of war and both in it bleak scene of nothingness and boredom and decay and and those flash of intense and brutal violence . in the film tamura just want to get some medical care . this be right at the start and and his told by his superior officer already he be with eye that stare off and an expression that have be drain by year of battle that he will die if he doesn not find a hospital . he doesn not and really and but do end up in with some soldier represent at first with a platoon that seem to sort of have their act together and but be really lead on by a power hungry brute who just want tamura stash of salt and and then later with two other stray soldier who be part of a group that have previously be ambush while cross a road at night . the story isn not entirely a straight line and but it doesn not need to be . tamura path in fire on the plain be tell in vignette and little story like when he come upon a seemingly desert enemy village . two of the populous come back to get some supply and and tamura sneak up on them . it an excruciate scene and since so far with tamura we haven not see him do anything outright wrong and but he do so in this scene and not even so much out of evil but out of fear and desperation ( this be also and without spoil it and how he get a stash of salt ) . little scene build up so brilliantly and with devastation and like a simple task of find a pair of walkable shoe and which there seem to be none . or when tamura and later in the film and discover his teeth be become torn apart and fall out from lack of total hygiene . so much for food and so it go . it should also be mention that this be a hauntingly realize film from ichikawa and shot in a stark black and white view of the field and wood and the cinematography fill everything we see in black black and white hot white . ichikawa also make sure to get everything authentic from his actor and not simply emotionally but with their own emaciate look and look of desperation right on them . it a if ichikawa have to have them all survive the film as well a character survive out in the wild while by wild and by the way and i mean also cannibalism . the shock of this be two fold while first be the way that a soldier say half jokingly early on about eat other soldier to tamaura and who ask if it be true and only in response get a do not ask word of caution and and the second with the depiction of cannibalism itself and from the crazy starve man on the hill who pull out gut out of his lap and say with a straight face to our hero that you can eat me when i die . this make thing especially more brutal when it come to the director film the brief action scene . these be and i would argue and more brutal than private ryan in their depiction of violence in battle and the carnage that be completely random . a scene i would point to and and that contain just a shot that be excruciate to watch and be when from a high angle we see a group of about twenty soldier walk slowly along and a hail of gunfire come that kill only four or five and but it just happen so fast and and the soldier just keep walk along at the same crawl . this isn not the only shot of horrible carnage that show when need to be bloody it there and but splash across the screen like something completely of the macabre but it drive the point completely . all of the acting be stagger ( funakoshi especially and who look to be both most at peace and most horrify by what he see in the subtlest of look most of the time ) and all of the major set piece provide something else to the gruesome experience and and it all amount to the ultimate question with an anti war film represent how can and or why and do people fight in war like these . it almost too depressing to put into word and and so ichikawa push our nose right up into the muck and filth and blood and demand for u to take it in and so maybe and some day and it will never happen again . or one can hope this and by the end of such a bleak and great film a this .