Battle Force

To be fair, as someone who absolutely hates most low budget WWII movies, this was surprisingly well done given the limited scope of budget and location. The acting was certainly decent and watchable. The script may have had its clichés, but what script doesn't? The important part is...it was genuine and tries to entertain rather than educate. It's NOT a documentary, which many critics here fail to understand. It's a decently crafted 'Drama' which was well shot, choreographed, and realized. The SS officer was a little over-the-top but again, this movie DOESN'T insult your intelligence by trying to be something it's not. It is NOT an amateur project by any means. It is NOT a 'Great' cinematic masterpiece either. It is simply, a reasonably well thought out period piece that offers some very decent entertainment despite a few shortcomings.

It's obvious these people worked very hard to make this project as good a movie as possible. There was no 'slouching' in how they went about shooting and producing this. If you want to look for all its faults rather than enjoy the sincere effort put into it, go ahead. Otherwise, have a glass and just let it roll. It hooked me, and THAT is a very hard thing to do.

I picked this movie up on a whim, one of many recent low budget WW2 movies that seem to have been hitting the shelves of the straight to DVD market. I have no problem with low budget films of this type and recently there have been some good ones and this one starts out with noble intentions as the opening titles would suggest, that the film is about the story of a real unit, made up of Americans and Canadians (The Film the Devils Brigade covers the actual unit) but here unfortunately is where the factual content of the film ends.

Set just before the invasion of Scily an American recon unit (Apparently the 101st Airborne who never actually were there) are captured and another team is sent to rescue them. That's the plot in a nutshell. The DOP has gone to some considerable effort to give the film a warm feel to represent the right part of Europe, but this can't let the film escape the fact that it was obviously all shot in California. I would have thought someone could have least grabbed a camera and taken some shots of the actual island which could have been nicely edited in to compensate for this. The acting wasn't all bad, and there were some funny lines,(plenty are just awful) but that's the problem with this film, it gives the impression its going to be about a factual battle, then half way through tries to become Kelly's Heroes and does neither successfully. The unit don't act like a military unit, moving with caution in one shot and then sauntering along the same path with not a care in the world in the next moment. The Nazi officer is just comical and stands in the middle of the road firing his gun while gunfire rages all around him. The fight scenes are actually quite boring and full of continuity issues and often make little sense to the plot or serve to enhance the story. (Such as it is) This project obviously started out with good intentions and its not as bad as 'Rhineland' (That's way worse) but somewhere it got lost and couldn't decide what it wanted to be. If your going to make films set in Europe, then you need to look at A Midnight Clear for an example of how to do it properly (Shot entirely on location in the USA)

I wanted to like this film and for a brief moment I thought I might, but in the end there was just too much that was wrong with it, which was a shame, because there could have been a good little film here. Alas sadly not.

A special forces group fighting against odds on a suicidal mission. So much to the story, which is a workable plot. Equipment, at least on the Allied side, looks authentic. Individual acting is not bad, sometimes above average, maybe even too slick at points. The Nazi officer is overdrawn. The problem is the lack of combat feel. Some of the worst shootings in movie history. Special forces not able to aim, the Germans not doing any better. Tactics, group movement, avoiding ambushes (if there were any)...forget it. Surprisingly good close and knife combat between the LT and an Italian guy. A few minutes later, surprisingly underwhelming close combat between the LT and some other guy (saving the spoiler). The amusing thing is, the movie is not the typical B class movie that needs 30 seconds to quit, but is entertaining in its own way, with its mix of setting and dialogue, esp. with the Missouri GI. 70% watchable, the rest is running around and shooting...and missing.

Let me begin by stating I suffered permanent brain damage watching this film. Just a little warning before we begin.

I appreciate the effort put into to making a film...I really do. Not much here to praise outside the competent camera work. This poor creature should be put down and given a decent burial.

This film revolves around a group of 1st Special Service Force guys scoping out Sicily prior to the allied invasion. Hey guys, the 1st SSF was never used in Sicily since the unit was heading for the Aleutians at the time. If I'm wrong I apologize.

The actors try hard. There just isn't much to work with. Watch for the largest 101st Airborne paratrooper in history. Probably took two chutes for him to make it to the ground safely. Check out the lip gloss on one of the partisan chicks. Very popular in Sicily at the time.

The combat scenes, if you can call them that, are just awful. Come on guys, there has to be someone in California who did a hitch in the Army Infantry. A little tactical advice could have gone a long way.

My suggestion is to dig up a copy of the "Devil's Brigade" with William Holden and watch that if you want a good war film with 1st Special Service Force action.

I watched it through to the end. That's something. Especially since, in the opening scene, American GIs are firing bolt-action rifles as though they were M-1 semi-automatics, never once working the bolt. As the movie shows, they HAD at least one old Garand on set, that they could have used in that scene accurately, but no. The script delivered a sprinkling of facts about the First Special Service Force, and then ladled on a ton of malarkey. I won't address the fact that the set looked the same no matter where anyone was supposed to be, thousands of miles apart, and others have rightly criticized defects in costuming, weaponry, etc. I'll only say that, when the main Nazi bad guy stands TWICE out in the open, once marvelously silhouetted by the skyline, at, for the military, very close range, and highly trained commandos can't hit him, with an aimed Garand, a BAR, even the supernaturally accurate submachine guns, while your random, unaimed snap shots are taking out Germans who are firing from cover, well ... There are other, more egregious crimes against history, good movie making, and the laws of physics in this movie, but we'll leave it at that. The closing scene, I can say without spoiling the movie, was particularly wrong headed. Having read three books about the FSSF, I can say that anyone with a smattering of that information could have crafted a screenplay better than what was served up, with the same guns, costumes, and characters, and made a decent movie out of it, since their ACTUAL exploits still rate as fantastic, without exaggeration, to this day.