Love in Country

Love in Country is an extremely ambitious film. Set in Vietnam, the story follows a small group of soldiers during the war. The movie centers specifically on two army sergeants who fall in love with each other. The cinematography was well done especially during the many scenes in the forests and the night scenes. I did think that the visual effects of some of the smoke explosions and bullet hits came across as low budget, however I was extremely impressed with the set design throughout, there was one scene outside a house and there were multiple fires burning. Overall an impressive and ambitious movie, for sure.

There is a lot of great cinematography in this film and the score was really great, these can specifically be seen in the landscape and aerial shots and the final closing scene and the scene with the monk in the woods. The story is compelling but could have used something more, possibly if this production had a higher budget as it does feel a bit on the low budget end. Especially with the gunfire and explosions not looking real. But I did find myself rooting for the characters although I did get a bit lost with what happened with the mission and what the rouge captain was doing at the end of the battle. But overall I felt the relationship between the two lead characters was very genuine.

Love in Country takes a real life event from the vietnam war and puts a fictionalized spin on things in a way that feels thoughtful and fresh. The filmmakers skirt around the fact that there is a whole war going on out there that we don't see much of, by focusing on a small group with a kee mission. There are a few factors involved that lead us to think this effort may be doomed from the start. There is some light racism lurking, a new captain who right away seems a tad unhinged, and the elephant in the room.... Two of the men in this company are in love.

Once those pieces are set, we're ready to set off on a journey of brotherhood and trust which will end with everyone questioning right and wrong, and how far someone will go to hold on to their morals.

Lots of nice cinematography in some picturesque locales. Authentic fight scenes and some classic war battles keep things interesting.

Not sure the audience this was intended for? Not for your typical heterosexual masculine war buff moviegoers unless you don't mind watching men kissing in the battlefield mixed with an obvious low budget cgi action sequences, bullets that are blurs of smoke-like cgi. The story line leaves you wondering 'why did that just happen, did I miss something?'

The actors lines seem unscripted and awkward, the disjointed scenes seem entirely built an attempt to emulate major blockbuster Vietnam war movies

The director said "okay your going to be shot try to make it look like platoon"

Not worth it Watch a van Damme or segal movie instead.

The story keeps you barely entertained wondering what will happen next then you realize you could of watched a much better war movie.

Whilst this may be based on a true scenario, and there may well be an underlying critique on the intolerance of the US military towards anyone who wasn't a white, heterosexual, man during the Vietnam War (and in many other conflicts) that's no excuse for taking the story of these brave men and turning it into this. David Garber ("Sgt. Alexander") and Michael Southworth ("Sgt. Reese") are charged with leading a secret CIA mission whilst facing opposition from their tenacious enemy and, as the two men come to terms with their own sexuality, with their colleague's attitude to that - all whilst under fire and in hostile terrain. The narrative here is all over the place. The lacklustre direction and soporific score; the really mediocre writing and the stilted acting all contribute to what is essentially a throughly unremarkable piece of cinema that seems to have no idea who it is for, or what it is trying to say - beyond the bleeding (quite literally) obvious. Most films from this theatre of war depict tragedy and brutality - but most do it far more cogently than this insipid melodrama that uses a gay angle to the story to thinly disguise a poor piece of wartime story-telling. It can't have had much of a budget and much of it looks like it was filmed in someone's back yard. It probably was, and maybe they could just stick to showing it there, too. Very poor.