Kokoda

While The Mud, The Sickness and the Unsettling Horrors, Of fighting a war in the Papuan Rainforest, Against the seemingly unstopable (Albeit Mis-Represented!) Japanese foe are well captured..The soldiers "Chocos" personalities however?, Are not!

The viewer is just not given a lot of background information on these men...Where they came from?, Why they were fighting?..Etc!.., Leaving the viewer not really caring, As to who survives the ordeal.

On top of that, The movie is affected by a slightly heavyhanded bit of Australian Nationalism, Not that's an overly bad thing?, It's just that it's feels 'shoehorned' in, For the occasion of the movie release..ANZAC Day!

In the mountainous terrain of New Guinea, is the Kokoda trail. A small band of improperly trained and ill equipped soldiers have to keep the advancing Japanese troops, threatening to over take Australia. The Japanese outnumber them one hundred to one; though this isn't their only threat; disease and injured soldiers are dropping like flies, holding out till the back up forces arrive.

Kokoda is a vividly created film on Australia's last stand against the Japanese army. Not covering all of war in New Guinea, we are only shown a small part, focusing in the fight of this small band of soldiers. Director Alister Grierson draws out the gritty detail of the land; the mud and rain in the claustrophobic rain forest. The are scenes of great intensity that play out like a horror film, mixed with some beautiful cinematography by Jules O'Loughlin.

Iconic part of Australian history aside, Kokoda isn't that great of a war film. Though struck with budget restraints, the problem lies within the script. The first acts seems omitted, plunging us right into action, there's not a lot of setup. The Characters aren't fleshed out, we don't know who these people are, making it hard to make an emotional connection; even though your placed right in the horror with them.

In a great performance, Jack Finsterer is amazing as Jack, leader of the small band of soldiers. Equally great is Travis McMahon as the hot-headed Darko. The rest of the cast doesn't compare to Jack and Travis, with cameos from Shane Bourne and William McInnes.

While Kokoda is not a epic war film, for which it should have been, Kokoda is a wonderful experience, paying homage to our war heroes.

ojfosterbrown, the only hyperbole here is yours. The statements you take such a dislike to accurately reflect history. The 39th were poorly trained and ill-equipped and Australians did think the Japanese were about to invade.

Ralph Honnor and his immediate superiors were screwed by Australian High Command (Blamey) and the "boys" of the 39th were later directly insulted to their faces by Blamey.

Ifra, if you think Private Ryan is an ideal to strive for, then you'd better develop a taste for that Chardonnay.

Pacific400, I'm no right-winger, but the fact is Japan has consistently refused to acknowledge its heinous crimes in WW2, why shouldn't audiences be shown what went on? Do you object to films showing Nazi crimes? Did you object to the NKVD machine-gunning Soviet grunts in Enemy at the Gates? Yes, let's not forget the great job the US did, they certainly never have, and they have no problem taking credit for others' work (U571), but how many of them know this story? How many of us know this story? Technical quibbles correct. Old .303s were standard, as were new Brens, militia definitely didn't have Thompsons and may not have had Owens, the thing only went into production in 1941 and the militia may not have had first pick of the weapons...

As for those saying the movie is missing the Big Picture, this isn't A Bridge Too Far, it shows the Kokoda campaign exactly as experienced by the 39th Bn, a series of small engagements where some cracked and some were heroes and the enemy were "faceless", "mysterious", utterly unknown by Australians, capable of astonishing cruelty and eventually forced into cannibalism.

As to those saying we don't make WW2 movies (or TV), try The Last Bullet, The Heroes, The Cowra Breakout, Attack Force Z (with Mel and Sam), Blood Oath, The Rats of Tobruk, Piece of Cake, Kokoda Front Line (academy award-winning documentary filmed where this film is set in the period immediately after - cameraman Damien Parrer died in combat on his return to New Guinea) and Death of a Soldier (even Paradise Road and Map of the Human Heart). What we don't do is make VN or Korean War movies.

This movie had its flaws, all movies do, but instead of castigating a first-time director for his lack of budget, castigate the studios for never having told this story before.

A war movie that finally showed what it's really like, "green" reservists climbing jungle-covered mountains while suffering from dysentery, malaria, not knowing where the enemy is and being in desperate need of a crap.

This movie is a real eye-opener. It gives a good 1st person perspective of what it would have been like to struggle with disease, not much food, hard ground to move forward on and a strong enemy. (outnumber Aussies 10-1) Throughout the film there are great camera angles and cinematography. Even though most of the actors are basically unknown, they do a superb job of acting. Some scenes are quite graphic, so people who are not used to seeing blood spurting, probably shouldn't see this. In Australia this movie in M15+, but for Americans who are wondering what rating it will be, R is probably a good estimate. All in All a good movie, 7.3 out of ten.

There is a certain amount of trepidation in approaching a war film in the current climate of anti-war sentiment. Can you make it objective and avoid the over-sentimental patriotism of so many American entries in this genre?

The makers of Kokoda seem to have thought long and hard about this.

The moment in history depicted in this film is the invasion by the Japanese into New Guinea in World War 2. A situation that directly threatened Australia as most of the Allied forces were consumed with fighting their own battles many thousands of miles away.

For Australia it was a matter of going to this hostile environment to repel the enemy advance or watch them invade the homeland. Many volunteer troups were enlisted (known as "chocco's") to supplement the regular army. They were under-trained and poorly equipped for this battlefront.

We are shown that men may be drawn to war for the right reasons but when confronted with the prospect of death then the basic human instincts of survival take over. Would you just look after yourself or help your comrades?

First time director Alister Grierson and co-writer John Lonie wisely decided to take a small incident to humanise the situation rather than try for an historical docu-drama. The result is a tense, superbly acted and directed 90 minutes that never loses its grip.

Stunning cinematography highlights the beauty of the rainforest canopy against the human horrors unfolding below.

This would be a great film in any year. The fact that is has been put together by a first time director on a low budget with a mainly unknown cast (all performances are riveting) makes this a major achievement.