Fort McCoy

The setup: Stoltz moves with his family to become a barber for the American army's POW camp at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, in the summer of 1944. Embittered that he cannot fight, he must take a stand when a Nazi officer threatens his wife.

The verdict: It's an important film. It will either surprise or disappoint you, depending on what your expectations are. Stoltz proves he's still got some ham in the old acting can. Acting is all-around good. The first 30 minutes are is a lot of fun and rather cleverly made. My only problem with the film was the supporting cast. 7 out of 10.

For those of us who grew up in this era, this movie was a very lovely trip down memory lane. As others have commented, the acting in this movie was not the best, but the attempt to recreate the era was quite realistic and exceptionally well done. The living conditions, the technology, the social mores and the nature of life at the time were very accurate well depicted.

I personally served at Ft McCoy and can vouch for the authenticity of the site and the facilities depicted in the film. This is a film that preserves an important historic story about a special place, like many other such places in WWII, and a unique group of people serving their county in whatever way they could and trying at the same time to preserve some sense of normalcy. I highly recommend it.

Kate Connor wrote and directed this affectionate and loving memoir of her family and the time they spent in Wisconsin at a place called Fort McCoy. Actually Camp McCoy, but I'll not quibble.

Clan patriarch Eric Stoltz comes to the camp to be a barber for the GIs, he's got a heart murmur and is a 4-F. The same thing knocked with malaria knocked Errol Flynn out of war service. It grates on him constantly, both in looking at the kids going overseas and those coming back dead and alive. Even the Germans and Japanese who were captured get a bit of envy for their service.

But wives and daughters also serve and the daughters form their own attachments to the soldiers, individually and collectively. Which brings me to the most poignant part of Fort McCoy. Young Gara Lonning entering puberty herself notices for the first time someone of the opposite sex. He happens to be Josh Zabel playing Heinrich who is a POW all of about 13 or so.

There's a famous newsreel film of Hitler giving a pep talk to some Hitler youth now impressed into service for the Fatherland. By 1944 I'm sure many were dead and many prisoners of war. The little innocent attraction of Zabel and Lonning will wet the eyes and the ultimate tragedy reduce you to tears.

Fort McCoy is a tale poignantly told and really should be seen to learn about how loss of innocence is too big a price for war.

I was born in June, 1944 (when this film is set), about 25 miles from Fort McCoy. As I grew up I knew a number of people who had worked, as civilians, at Fort McCoy. I was very interested in seeing how the film would present the place and time, etc. Unfortunately, the screenplay is amateurish ,at best, the acting is wooden and the sets, such as they are, could be anywhere in a woods with a small river and a couple of buildings. This may well be a true story but it is told in a way that made me simply want to turn it off after about 20 minutes. I stayed with it, though...hoping for The Best. I didn't get it. There were lots of American soldiers at Fort McCoy at this time but you'd swear there were only 5-6 as you watch the film. Plus 5-6 Japanese PWS and maybe 10 German PWs (who, apparently, were allowed to wander around the place at all times of the day and night with no supervision). I'm sure the film was made on a small, small budget but that's no excuse. Seriously, I'm sorry I wasted my time on this little flick.

I liked this film a lot...especially the budding love between the two innocent children swept up in the harsh realities of war and all it's causalities--super sweet and a wonderful juxtaposition. The production was more intimate than I imagine the real Camp McCoy was, but it only reflects the constraints of what I imagine the indie budget allowed. But it's really well done and the cast is solid across the board, especially the kids mentioned above.