What makes it different from others?

The greatest movie ever made..!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Blistering performances.

I couldn't get past the horribly awful, unauthentic Mississippi accents that most of the main actors used. The dancing routines of the young girls is a highlight of the entire film. The war scenes are not believable and Kevin Costner is highly overrated as an actor Elijah Wood is far and away the star of the cast. The overly confident attitudes of the little girls is completely unrealistic. I wanted to like this movie but it's just not very well done. The narration style is nothing new and this version of it seems like a wanna-be knock-off. If "the tree" is a real, live tree, it is a magnificent specimen and another highlight of an otherwise lackluster film.

A lot of people that have reviewed here say this movie is too sentimental, too much of an "ideal morals" kind of movie, that they don't like coming of age films, and so forth.I think this movie is a nice break from the typical movies that everyone likes nowadays....ones that are full of sex, sexual humor, people slicing each other's heads off, exploding buildings, etc...Is it a simple story? Yeah. Too full of "moral lessons"? Probably. Cheesy by today's standards? Another maybe, depending on the age of the viewer. I do agree with the statement that kids don't talk like grown-ups, maybe they did back in the time that this movie was set. This is by no means a trendy mainstream type of movie, but Kevin Costner and Elijah Wood are great here. It's a simple story about a war veteran and his family and the adventures of his kids and their treehouse. This is one of my favorite movies. I believe this is also a great movie for children to watch, I bet this movie could teach children some morals better than their own parents can. Also, children have their whole lives ahead of them, and probably are not pessimistic about life already, therefore they still have a chance to be able to appreciate this good old-fashioned story. Good for nostalgia for the non-pessimistic viewer. This movie does not have a happy ending, however, like some of the other "cheesy" "sentimental" movies.

this is just me but.........quite frankly it is the best movie i have ever seen. the setting, the soundtrack, the message the movie portrays is so noble. i was the age of those kids in the movie in the early 70's as well and grew up in a small southern town so i can relate. if i could be any character in any movie i would strive to be half the man mr simmons is in this movie. i just happened upon this movie in a discount bin and most of my friends have never heard of it. perhaps they could have come up with a better title name for the movie, maybe "the treehouse", but it is a true diamond in the rough for my values. seems every character in this movie was genuine, which in turn makes you so caring for them all.

The title is both apt and, from a marketing point of view, unfortunate; The first time I saw this movie was in an almost empty theatre. The only other viewers were adolescent males drawn by the title looking for explosions and action. Again because of the misleading title an appropriate audience was absent, except perhaps for me. There are at least 3 wars represented in this film, but none of them involves screen action of the sort desired by those young men.This could have been SUCH a good movie if it had displayed the sort of integrity it advocates. If you believe in doing the right thing for its own sake - that humanity is redeemed daily by the billions who get up and do their best to respect the needs of others when making each choice - then this movie will resonate deeply with your own internal war to "do the right thing". It begins by showing clearly how ordinary people can succeed heroically or fail tragically, why it matters and how it differs from "the American Dream" of material reward. To a large extent this plays out with satisfying complexity, but unfortunately yields in two points (which I may not name for fear of "spoiling" the outcome) to the American desire both to equate justice with material reward and to regard Tinkerbell / Angels / magic as meaningful agency in the world. Those flaws aside, this movie is very, very well done. Everyone should see it.