**_What happens to a sergeant and a private during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest_**
If you ignore some glaring issues, this is a decent tale focusing on a couple of war-weary soldiers in late 1944 on the border of Belgium and Germany (Aidan Bristow and Matthew James McCarthy). It was obviously influenced by “When Trumpets Fade” from twenty years prior and “The Last Rescue” from three years earlier, both of which are superior productions.
One eye-rolling anachronism is a reference to ’Nam when America wouldn’t have troops there for another twenty years. I’m assuming it was a joke by the writer/director, Justin Lee, since he would know better. Then there’s the Army colonel with a beard (Corbin Bernsen in a bit part), which was something only permitted in the Navy. However, maybe there was no time for the colonel to shave in the intense situation (Why Sure).
The Battle of Hurtgen Forest took place from Sept 19 to Dec 16, 1944, and was the precursor to the Battle of the Bulge. I bring this up because the movie covers a couple of days late in the battle, which means December. Yet the flick was obviously shot in the summer months or early fall. There’s just no way you can watch the movie and take what’s happening as occurring in December; or even November for that matter. Then there’s the overweight Private ‘Boston,’ which wouldn’t be the case with battle-weary soldiers living in the bush for weeks on end.
So, it’s not a bad little story involving a handful of American soldiers, including two female medic lieutenants, but it’s seriously marred by the hard-to-ignore issues noted.
The writer/director’s previous film was the nigh excellent Western “Any Bullet Will Do” and 4-5 years later he’d release the solid “A Tale of Two Guns,” another Western, and the well-done crime thriller “Hunting Games.” His movies usually involve a small number of people thrust into challenging situations in wilderness areas. Those movies prove that he’s a proficient low-budget (direct-to-streaming) filmmaker, but this one has too many dubious bits to recommend.
It runs 1h 30m and was shot in the wooded areas southeast of Portland, including Estacada and Mount Hood National Forest.
GRADE: C-
