Fort McCoy

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.

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.

I wish Eric Stolz could have played all the parts. Kind of like a One Man Show because he was the only one that could act. I didn't think he'd be involved in a B rated movie. Maybe he was bored and just helping some friends out. The character "Ruby" was, by far, the worst. German officers in full uniform walking around an open area with easy access to Americans? Huh? Why is the set so dark? At least the house and scenery was interesting. Does Florie ever stop chewing gum? Does Lester ever stop with the maniacal grin? Does Heinrich know his voice is being dubbed over? Does the priest even know he's on a movie set? We may never know.

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.

The story is a little simple and sentimental, but I didn't have any expectations. I think the cast does a good job with the material that doesn't have enough time to fully flesh out the characters. Eric Stoltz is good too; I never really understood why he didn't get bigger roles. Maybe, his roles will get a second wind when he doesn't look 13. It's a little bit Leave It To Beaver, so is probably popular with the Christian crowd.

I found the movie randomly on Netflix but I clicked on it because I was a kid on Ft. McCoy as well. There were only about 4 kids on the post in 1978, and I do remember a 1950's purity of living there. We lived so far apart we never saw each other except when a jeep picked us up to take us into the schools in Sparta. The POW fences and towers remained, but it was a ghost town except in the summer when reservists showed up to bomb the ranges into oblivion. Years later, after we left, they would turn the barracks, not the compounds into a camp for Cuban "refugees." The movie captured a certain feel to the place that I liked...beautiful woods, Squaw lake, and some old fashioned values that remained on army posts into the 80's at least. It was a fun place to be a kid but the movie only has time to give you a glimpse of that.