Patria

Entertaining movie. Based on letters from a W.O.1 soldier to his father. You get a glimpse of what life was about in the trenches. Film feels very authentic, which strengthens the story. If you're into war movies or history you should really see this one, it approaches the matter from the other site, which is refreshing.

The movie centers on a person's experience in WW1, a story that needs to be told and shared. The difficulty is this movie doesn't adequately tell that story. The biggest issue are the studio-produced dubs delivering emotionless and almost monotone lines, like someone reading a newspaper aloud. It may have been substantially better to subtitle the movie and run with the original voices and sounds. Several other important details in the movie also took away from it such as the unrealistic action sequences and many little things such as the perfectly clean hands, helmets and shirts of those that were in action for days in muddy trenches and the sheer lack of getting a sense of a battleground larger that 6-8 people. Unfortunately these and many other issues became distractions and affected the enjoyment of this movie. I really wanted this movie to work but the lack of passion and realism made it difficult to feel emotionally invested in this movie and it became a chore to watch it to the end.

The first time I tried watching this movie I nearly died laughing because of how bad the dub was then I watched it the second time and realize that the movie wasn't actually that bad in my opinion it would've been better if instead of dubbing it in the worst voice acting I've ever heard and if they had just kept it in the original language it was recorded in and put in subtitles it would've been much more enjoyable

PATRIA (AKA No Man's Land) 2014 I spent quite a while looking for the film, No Man's Land on Google and IMDB, this was after watching it on Netflix, and is my usual desire to write a pretentious review. I couldn't find at all, I found Mexican western, and then an Indian movies but not this Dutch film about a Asian (sorry I can't recall his nationality) who has a Dutch father, but lives and works in France., at the start of the Great War.

At what point was it called, the great war and subsequently World War1, surely at the start, it must have been a skirmish, or battle at worst a French German war? Perhaps history buffs out there might know the answer.

Anyway the central figure joins the French in fighting the Hun, like a lot of young men did in the patriotic duty to do their bit and anyway the war would be over by Christmas. It wasn't was it.

The film features all the usual clichés of movies depicting the 1st World War and after Oscar Winners and nominees 1917 and All Quiet On The Western Front, I am now tired of these movies, I know they can't offer little difference due to the circumstances of trench warfare, but we have seen it all before and the afore mentioned movies have done it 100 times better. PS for excitement and a different perspective on trench warfare try Kubrick's Paths Of Glory.

I usually stay away from movies with a rating below 6 but thought I would give this a go. I think the acting is great, directing is great, it is a true story. Yes it's low budget so what. It helps if you speak Dutch. Maybe not a 10 but I give this a 10 because the 5 is way too low.