Kilo Due Bravo - Ad un passo dalla morte

I've never seen a movie capture what it is to be a soldier better. British, American or whatever. Watch this - it's history not a film.

There have been many films made about Afghanistan/Iraq over the last few years and they are all afforded a degree of Hollywood Licencing. The Hurt Locker being an excellent example, almost good but ruined by pandering to a less intelligent audience.

If I was asked to describe what being a soldier is I could only ever point to this film. There is nothing there that is overdone or underdone.

It just is what it is meant to be.

The other reviews are all correct, Kajaki is honest, illuminating, and brilliantly delivered. I only point out for the sake of other people deciding whether to watch this, it really is harrowing. If you don't have a specific interest in the realities of war, you might find yourself wishing you hadn't started it.

Does this story need to be told? Absolutely Do I wish I'd watched a comedy instead? Yes

Having served this film is often too painful to watch (the reason for my giving it a 9/10). It expresses the suffering and comradeship of warfare.

This isn't just a film it's an education for a society disassociated from war. For those critics war isn't glorious or romantic. It's dirty and boring, and yes, people screw up. If you're stuck in a minefield without all the Gucci kit it's a bayonet and you're belt buckle, and it's hot and tiring and you make mistakes. Soldiers (at least the Toms) don't speak received English (so maybe you might have to pay more attention to what is being said)and yes they swear, live with it!

There are plenty of wonderful war films where the (usually American) protagonists win the day with either a fashionable injury or glorious death; this isn't one of them. There is however humour and pathos in war and this expressed in loads. If everyone knew what war was really like nobody would want anything to do with one.

There's only a handful of so called "war films" I consider to be films about the actual reality of war. HBO's mini-series 'Generation Kill' is probably the most realistic when it comes to the depiction of modern warfare - but 'Kajaki' (also known as 'Kilo Two Bravo') gives it a run for its money: this criminally under-seen masterpiece should be considered a modern classic. The production values are fantastic; the cinematography, the script and the direction are absolutely flawless - but you won't notice them. What you will notice is the outstanding ensemble of actors, portraying characters in a way you forget you're watching a movie. They will make you cringe, laugh, cry and hold your breath in shocked disbelief and utter horror.

This film had me literally on the edge of my seat the entire time, but what really grabs you by the gut is not just the suspense and the horror; it's the relationships between these soldiers and how they look out for each other. How close men become when their lives depend on each other has probably rarely been depicted on screen with the intensity and no-bullshît, keep-it-real attitude as is the case here. And knowing that what you're seeing actually happened only adds to the experience (for this film IS an experience). Definitely not the kind of war film that you come across very often. Superb. 9 stars out of 10.

Favorite films: http://www.IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/

Lesser-Known Masterpieces: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Favorite Low-Budget and B-Movies: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls054808375/

I was 21 at 1973, only 4 month after my army service, mandatory of course, as is army service in Israel, i just finished 3 years of hard service, 4/5 of it under constant fire, i was at the Suez canal and the Egyptians were shooting at us non stop, we did not respond, ammo was in short supply, and we just tried to keep our posts. Then, on September, all the Arab countries surrounding Israel issued an attack, it was Yom Kippur, our holiest day of the year, most of the soldiers were at home, we were attacked from all sides, transportation arrived to soldier houses and took all to the war, me too. I met my tank crew at the south desert, we got the tank on the truck and headed to the fight zone, few kilometers from there we drove off the truck and headed south, to try and stop the Arab tanks, we fought the whole day, watching our tanks get hit by rpg rockets, and by the second day we were ordered to drive behind the Egyptians and try to block the second wave of Arabic tanks that was crossing the canal, on the way to the canal, we were hit by an rpg, the gunman died immediately, me and the 2 crew members managed to get out, i shot the guy with the rpg, but his friends on a jeep escaped and informed others about us, so, 100 kilometers from any Israeli army, in the desert, an area full of our own mines, intended to block a possible Arabic attack, there were us, me, the driver, and a seriously wounded loader. want to know what happened to us? watch the film, it is really our crew's story! we stayed there 7 days, no water, with thousands of mines around us, the heat was 50 plus Celsius, we were shot, buried by tanks, but we survived.