The Fallen

I should admit right away that I don't like war movies. So when I was invited to see this film I went, because I knew that the person who invited me has good taste and wouldn't sponsor a film that wasn't good. I was pleasantly surprised when this film totally took hold of me. The theater was crowded, and I was very hungry with no popcorn. So when I found myself totally engrossed in this black and white film that deals with the gritty life of soldiers during World War II I was amazed. I got so involved in the lives of the men in this film that I forgot all about my hunger, and like a good novel, the film sped along to its end.

This film does a really good job of examining the lives of three different groups of soldiers, giving the audience a look at divergent points of view during wartime. Added to this is the fact that technically the film is very well done. I would say this is a war movie for people who don't usually enjoy them. All in all a very well done film for a first time director. I hope to see this placed in many more theaters so more people can see it.

I really enjoyed this film. It was sad and funny and tragic and many other things as well. It reminded me of the hallelujah trail (Burt Lancaster)with loads of people wandering around looking for each other. Eventually they find each other whether they want to or not and a number of them end up dead (this being unlike the Hallelulah Trail). I liked the way that lots of the characters wanted out but kept on going despite their fears.I imagine this is true of most combatants. Some people are heroes (see Audie Murphies Films)but most people are just people. There were a number of stereotypes but then this is also true of life. Wherever you go you meet people who fit these stereotypes. It was a very human film.

As with most independent features, shot with an ultra low budget, I entered the screening of Letters from the Dead / Fallen with lower expectations than I would have of a Hollywood war movie. However I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the film as it was unlike most conventional war movies, which tend to tell the historical aspect of the war. What this film achieves is to bring the war down to a personal level for the audience. This is done through sensational acting from the whole cast and excellent directing from Ari Taub, who chose to tell the story in both German and Italian, shying away from the commercial idea of using only English (so that American's don't have to read the subtitles). I left the cinema with a better understanding of how the war affected the individual soldier because Ari Taub has created a very refreshing and truthful film that I would recommend anybody to go and see.

Catharina Widell 17st September 2004

I've a lot of respect for what American director Ari Taub is at least trying in his 2004 film set during World War II, entitled The Fallen. Where directors such as Michael Bay have, in the past, been granted huge sums of money only to go on and totally miss the mark in capturing that of what warfare is; does and represents in the form of Pearl Harbor, is terrifying. Likewise, other recent films have disappointedly used the sub-genre of war as a backdrop of spectacle to unfold cheap, familiar and dreary self discovery tales, as seen in James Cameron's Avatar, that aren't particularly interesting nor smart. Given this, it is difficult not to muster up at least an ounce of knowing for those such as Taub and The Fallen, whom are trying to explore ideas and get a proper film, about something, followed through with. It's unfortunate then, that the The Fallen ends up as uninteresting and detached as it does; a plodding and dreary feature that mostly drags for all of it's little-over-an-hour-and-a-half runtime as it strives to explore the viewpoints of a handful of soldiers amongst various factions in Second World War Italy.

The key in what the film wants to do ironically lies in its own inability to properly distinguish character from character or troop from troop. The two writers, Nick Day and Caio Ribeiro, and as a consequence the film itself, are more preoccupied with the notion of entire squads of soldiers or collections of people representative of respective ideologies battling it out on the front-line of a war. The film, particularly through it's tag-line which reads: "There are three sides to every story: ours, theirs, and the truth." is about the universal struggle with life, death and everything else all troops on the battle field share as they fight and strive for each of their respective victories more than it is an exploration of the damaging physical or psychological effects more famous examples of war films from recent decades have portrayed.

The foundations of this idea are fair enough, the result is a mostly wavy and unfocused piece which makes its point fairly quickly and covers most of its bases aptly enough when doing so, but too sporadically to really immerse us. The approach additionally denies the audience a chance to map onto an individual character around which the events play out, instead opting to cover German; Italian and American troops within the rural woodlands of Italy as the proverbial net closes in on those on the wrong side towards the end of The War. We're provided with some brief introductions of each of the three parties, the Germans occupying very grey, dishevelled and desperate quarters; the toll of the war etched all over the faces and coming out in the tone of their voices. Later, a lone American trooper jogs through a local village to a large manor house guarded by plain clothed, gun wielding Italians whom stop him and question him. The American keeps his cool at gun point and gets done whatever job he was there for; his isolation from the rest of his troops and individualism in the scene displaying an ability to stay calm and get even the toughest of missions done under threat. Then comes the time to provide us with an Italian perspective, a less than glamorous depiction of Italians as exhibitionists making a racket in a natural spring with the film generally subscribing to displaying them as caricatures throughout, especially disappointing given what has been established as a film all about breaking down boundaries and creating an equal playing field to all involved.

Out on the front-line amidst the gun fire and shrapnel is Charlie Company, of the United states Army, whom are running low on supplies. A platoon of American soldiers, including the aforementioned calm head and a more psychotic soldier whom appears to be channeling Andy Serkis' Private Quinn of 2002's Deathwatch, have been rejected leave and are instead charged with delivering supplies to the front-line that'll make the crucial difference and win them the fight: all half a dozen or so small wooden boxes of it. After the truck they're meant to deliver it all in breaks down, their plight manifests into a trawling across the country side, aid in-tow. This provides their plight with a very sub-Private Ryan feel about proceedings, the film granting us a series of sequences that see the troops caught up in exchanges and various altercations or scenarios with what could or could not be the enemy. Some of which include the running into a suspicious farmyard building and the uncovering of a machine gun emplacement plus trench, each supposedly acting as the catalysts for the troops to garner first hand experience of the front. In short, it's a little patchy and mostly an uninteresting adventure; the film not really being about plot, but more-so the universal thematics; with whatever story in there not being explored nor necessarily told particularly well enough to arouse interest.

One moment does get the blood pumping, one fleeting moment does show that there is indeed power to be had somewhere in the material and it sees Italian soldiers and renegade, anti-establishment Italian soldiers come face to face in a clearing as a standoff occurs; an instance that is well directed and is accompanied by a real sense of both threat and peril. But these moments, while interesting in their brief examining of how fighting on the front morally affects those involved, are too few and far in-between; a moment in which Taub's direction sears through only to have us frustratingly realise not much else is off this level when it seemingly could have been. The film is sporadic, even discombobulated; and with little-to-no discernible narrative to elevate the material above a series of interactions and scenarios of various factions strung together, decidedly disappointing.

Can you believe a WWII movie was made for so little money?? I can't. I'm so used to the traditional trite Hollywood epics that are all flash and no flavor. This was an unexpected, (though not entirely palatable), treat. Some of the acting was stilted and the effects a bit too cheaply raw, but the heart was there and it shines though the fog.

It takes real guts to portray all sides of such a horrible affair with dignity and respect.

Even Spielberg kept at an arms length on this issue.

Kudos to the brave soul who made this. I'll keep an eye out for upcoming projects for sure...