Memorial Day - Lembranças de uma Guerra

First and foremost let me preface this review by saying I love independent films and war films. This film has four main actors, and they all did a marvelous job making their characters extremely believable and real. But, what makes this movie unmistakably good is that it makes you feel. There is no way you can not watch this movie and not feel for the grandfathers condition, or the trials and tribulations that that Kyle Vogel, and Bud Vogel. But, maybe most importantly this film forces us to look at what war is. This film shows that regardless of how much war has changed, in many ways it has not changed. There is still death, loss, and moral struggles. That at some point we all must come to terms with. This is a movie that I would recommend with flying colors, but I am skeptical of this movies re-watch value because once the moral issues have been lay-ed out there is not much else to this movie.

While I can see that the movie had in general some good actors and the dialogue was also all decent, the movie had really bad casting for the German soldiers, which actually would have made everything more believable. When telling a true story you need to have everything in it as real as possible. The English actors as German soldiers spoke such broken German, the first thing I thought was, WHY, why save money on that. Would you believe a story when the GI's were Asian looking? Would you believe if they had a Russian accent? No, you would not believe that they were really American soldiers. For that alone, I subtracted 5 stars, simply because it made the movie cheap looking. You can't tell a true story with fake facts.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do know some "principals" involved with the making of this film, and was on location to watch a few scenes being filmed and met most of the cast.

With that out of the way. Seriously, what these people did, from a conversation, to an idea, from concept, to an LLC, bringing in the key actors, etc. They did not just "make a movie" to say "hey, we made a movie." With limited time, limited location, limited funds, they took a great screenplay which the actors obviously enjoyed, executed their performances to the best of their abilities. They followed through on the cutting room floor, with the Audio and with the Digitization. BEAUTIFUL!

Again, come full circle to the wonderful screenplay, and the performances of the Cromwell's. I loved the movie. I will own it and I will watch it every Memorial Day for my remaining years. Kudos to the entire cast/crew!

What a movie! This movie isn't just a story about two wars but how both those wars affected the lives of two people. James Cromwell (Bud Vogel)is at his very best and his son John Cromwell (younger Lt. Bud Vogel)is what many would say is "a chip off the old block". Jackson Bond plays the young grandson Kyle Vogel while Jonathan Bennett plays Kyle as a grown man. The acting and portrayal of the participants is superb in every detail.

The story deals with flashbacks of war and torment and drives home the need to understand. It may be hard for me to tell you about the movie without spoiling it for you so I won't get into too much detail other than to tell you to sit down in a quiet room and watch this movie with an open mind and heart. Saving Private Ryan brought a tear to these old eyes of mine and I have to admit the same thing happened to me while watching this movie. So a box of tissues may be an added item to have nearby.

Well directed, excellently photographed, superbly acted this well scripted movie is a mover - and that's what I watch films for, to be moved, to be taken to another place in my imagination or experiencing that can release feelings and emotions within me that touch upon the core of my 'humanness'. This film performs this task, and more, beautifully. I watched it 4 nights ago and have since watched 3 more movies, yet I find myself consistently and continually being drawn back into Memorial Day. My memory keeps thrusting this back into my consciousness. There are some wonderfully subtle family moments, ebbs and flows, currents and undercurrents, that are so honestly representative of most families. The family setting is very recognizable for most people. I am 68 and I can recognize many characters I have known in this film.They are clearly identifiable. It is,thankfully,not a 'shock and awe' film, but rather a very believable journey through the experiencing of 3 generations and the determined power of children to seek answers.Memorial Day is truly memorable.