Devil's Men

Devils men review

Coming fresh off the heels of a masterpiece like "Masters of the Air" I had high hopes for more, modern World War II content. By all accounts, "The Devil's Brigade - Die Spezialeinheit" should have been a winner: an elite unite, the First Special Service Force, going up against seemingly insurmountable odds in an area of the war that really hasn't gotten the attention it deserves.

However, despite some great editing, and passion on the part of the production crew and actors, the film feels disingenuous. Instead of taking audiences on a journey, showing them the horrors of war through the eyes of an Everyman, "Devil's Brigade" feels more like a version of war that the screenwriter thought it should be, instead of what it actually was. A sanitized version of events, instead of the true history that honors what these men and women went through.

Beyond that, the dialogue felt forced. It sounded like someone had watched "A Bridge Too Far", "Big Red One" or "Patton" and tried to cobble together the same speech patterns found in those classics, but instead, ended up with something more akin to a 1950s radio serial: canned, hokey, and unnatural.

Maybe "Devil's Brigade" will inspire viewers to look into the actual history and see what the real people did and experienced. I just wish it had been depicted in this film.

This movie is supposedly made from the letters sent home by an actual soldier in WW2. They obviously had a very limited budget and couldn't afford a military advisor or historian. The costumes are so far from authentic US military uniform and insignia that I was completely distracted, but it got worse. The buildings, vehicles, ranks, weapons, tactics, terminology and even the locations are just wrong.

The sound and musical score are jarringly bad and the accents are pathetic. The dialog is poorly delivered and the acting is not great.

The story itself is reasonably good if you can get past everything wrong I've previously mentioned. I dare say this could've been a good movie if it had been made with any resemblance of a decent budget and an eye for historical accuracy.

When I stumbled upon this 2023 war movie titled "Devil's Men" by random chance here in 2024, of course I opted to sit down and watch it, as I do like World War II themed movies. Howeer, I must admit that I wasn't exactly harboring much of any expectations to the movie, as it had managed to land a staggering 3.6 rating here on IMDb, when I sat down to watch it.

Sure, I had never heard about "Devil's Men" from writers Dave Bresnahan and Mark J. Nelson, so I didn't know what I was in for here. And as such, then they had every opportunity to entertain and impress me, I suppose.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, and that is actually something I enjoy when I sit down and watch a movie; as there are no associations to other characters portrayed in other movies. The acting performances in "Devil's Men" were fairly okay.

Most of the skirmish scenes were lacking dynamic camera work in order to make it more adrenaline-filled and exiciting. It wasn't that it was badly filmed or anything, but the skirmish scenes were just too flat and one-dimensional, and that was a shame, because a war movie is so much more enjoyable if it feels like the audience is right there in the chaos of warfare. And it wasn't as if there wasn't enough skirmish scenes to pick from.

The wardrobe department and prop department definitely stepped up to their tasks and made it looks like an authentic World War II, and for a war movie that is a make or break deal. So thumbs up for accomplishing that.

The music in the movie was a bit too over-the-top. They simply used too much of that 'epic' atmospheric music throughout the course of the movie, and it was a bit too loud in comparison to the overall rest of the movie. A minor detail, but a nuissance nonetheless.

"Devil's Men" is a watchable World War II movie, though personally I could have used a bit more dynamic cinematography during the skirmish scenes. But all in all, a fair attempt at a World War II movie. If you enjoy World War II movies, you might get a particular kick out of watching directors Dave Bresnahan and Weston Childers' 2023 movie.

My rating of "Devil's Men" lands on a five out of ten stars.

The first few minutes are a turn of...At just 1.30 minutes in the movie, there is a close up of a soldier holding a rifle which is not even a replica of a WW2 weapon, and looks like it was made as a high school wood shop project that got a C- as test score.

Costume designer needs a rocket up the you know where. Military uniforms have no authenticity. At the 10 minute mak, in a combat training exercise, the soldiers are all wearing different uniforms, if they could actually be called uniforms. Cover-alls of different designs/style?? At 13:30, why the heck is a soldier in uniform from Wyming wearing a German Iron Cross (and a poor replica at that). Notably, the soldier is wearing the "Devils Brigade" insignia, being the special combined US/Canada commando force. These insignia were not granted until after graduation, not during training.

Notably, the 1st Special Service Force as they were officially known, trained near Helena, Montana. The filming location of this movie is clearly not in Montana.

When we see the soldiers doing knife combat training, the knife held by the trainer is clearly NOT the V-42 as issued to them. (google it)

We see the soldiers drinking from beer bottles that are clearly not 1940's, but more recent.

The movie portrays what would have been the assault on Monte la Difensa. The scene in the movie does not even remotely match the landscape. And the combat scene does nor even remotely resemble the actual history. Movie shows failure of the soldiers and early detection, while in reality , was a complete surprise attack by the allied forces.

In that battle, the M1928A1 Thompson was the most widely used weapon, but this movie does not show a single one. Mostly Garands and M1s shown in the movie.. During the assault on Monte la Difensa, the movie shows an assembly of captured alleged German weapons, but what is shown are firearms post WW2 from different countries.

The movie also shows sporadic battles with rest time, but in reality, it was full on without respite.

Also, in the movie during the battle at Mt Sammucro,the movie says it was December 23, and soldiers say they do not want to die on christmas day, but the battle was well before christmas being between 8-17 December 1943. We also see soldiers fighting in heavy snow in a wooded forest.... but the real battle was on a steep rocky mountain devoid of vegetation and there was no snow. And the big one, The Devils Brigade did not fight in that battle. It was the 5th Army Division.

Overall... the movie has no authenticity, no historical accuracy, no accuracy to detail, poor acting, poor camera work, and really has no story line at all. The scenes jump all over the place. There is no flow.

Do not even bother watching this dribble.

I do not blame the director-role of Dave Bresnahan. Good job taking that seat.

But I guess there was no money to dig deeper and doctor the script?

Result of this:

Protagonist questions the sense of killing. I question my nausea while watching and why I don't just turn off a film instead of hoping something more will come.

No good action, no spark that ignites, nothing special about the devils.

Also, I have an FMJ déjà vu: First training, then combat deployment. The story remains boring, and the music is too heroic and loud. Also, later on, the characters remain dull and tedious.

I am too disappointed to research "Hollywood vs Fiction" and the real story behind it. Also it's a remake?