Before the War - Allegiance

I am not sure why is this movie having so low grade. From my point of view it is pretty much underrated. The 'thriller' genre posted over here might be misleading considering the fact that this is more drama than a thriller. No big thrills, no tones of blood but pretty good drama development. Also pretty good casting except maybe for the main role which doesn't mean that the guy doesn't act well, just that he is not really made for the character he played. Good acting and pretty good directing. The director pretty much looks like someone who hasn't made many movies but is talented and understands very well the concept of the movie development generally speaking. I love the atypical way of developing the characters in his movie where he uses face mimics, glances and silence to express the nature of the dramatic situation rather than bunch of unnecessary words. So, I recommend this movie as pretty interesting and if the director Michael Connors ever read my comment, I want him to know that he should keep up the good work.

I thought this movie had possibilities. Then the first scene has a Lt. Bribing a sergeant. While I won't say that doesn't happen, it certainly isn't that blatant. The interaction with lower enlisted and officers in the guard is fairly realistic, I find it funny the "active duty" Lt. Doesn't take offense to being called by his first name. The scenes where they are trying to fake the sergeant out by playing poker are pretty close to accurate,a lot of other stuff... Not so much. The new Lt and his getting screwed story sucks. Yeah he saw combat and got wounded. According to this story, that's it. He still had his IRR left. There are way more worse stories about that out there. I personally had to extend a year so I could deploy. Past my 20 years.I missed not deploying by a month, and yet I didn't try some massive trick to get out of it. I went. Anyway, there were possibilities in this movie, but a lot fell flat.

I ordered this DVD only to see Reshma Shetty act outside of Royal Pains. Unfortunately her role in this movie is minimal. I didn't get to see much. But what I found instead was a really good movie and impressive performances. I won't go into the details of the plot as others have covered that. But the story is well written. The characters are all multifaceted and believable. The good guys aren't all good; the bad guys aren't all bad. Each has a back story that gets delivered to us in due time. Bow Wow (that can't be what's on his birth certificate) gave perhaps the most surprising performance of the whole movie. I'm not one who thinks that every rap artist should be an actor. Mr. Wow is a pleasant exception. I'd look forward to seeing him in other works. Pablo Schreiber has one of those "that guy" kind of faces. Like you know you've seen him before but can't remember where. And that's a huge shame because his performance was all anyone had any right to expect from him. Because of who his brother is he might get over looked but don't make that mistake. Take him on his own merits and enjoy his talents. Reshma Shetty, for her part, performed flawlessly but her role was so minimal that there wasn't much she could do with it. I'd sure like to see more from this woman. Someone should write bigger and better roles for her. Maybe I'll do it myself.

Bottom line: A very good movie.

I was sitting on the edge of my seat to see how this complex moral dilemma would be resolved. I really enjoyed watching the various pressures felt by the soldiers and the moral ambiguity of some of their positions. Very impressed by Bow Wow's acting and the job done by the whole very believable cast. I forgot I was watching a movie and was totally caught up in the tensions felt by all.

It is nice to see an intelligent military movie thriller which makes the viewer wonder what they would do given the same set of circumstances.

I could see that this movie was true to what it is really like to be called upon to serve your country, wanting to take the safe route out of danger, and having allegiances to family as well as fellow soldiers.

A film of noble intentions. From director, scripwriter, actors, characters. Using army life as pretext for a noble message. But this message is not convincing, or realist, or easy accepted by viewer. Sure, the effort for create a dramatic - touching story is lovely. But it does not works . And it is not a real specific guilty. Only the conclusion. But, for view Aidan Quin and appreciate the work of actors for save an easy story, the film deserves some attention.