Seis Triple Ocho

As a veteran and historian, the story of the 6888 Postal Service Battalion is a moving one. This movie is good, but the multitude of mistakes in the movie as well as the overprocessed look of the video grated on me for the entire film.

The overprocessing look is a matter of taste, but the mistakes in military protocol and the battle scene were avoidable. First, the initial battle scene looked like a video game and was blatantly absurd. Second, "attention" and "fall in" are not interchangeable and the proper follow up command after "dress right dress" and "cover" is "ready front", not "ready two". In addition, the use of "eyes right" and "present arms" during the review are incorrect.

First I want to state very clearly, although this movie already has a small (about 35 or 40) number of positive reviews, a full 18% of the votes here on IMDb are "1". What does that say? Bigotry is still pervasive, and I doubt that many who voted it "1" even took the time to watch the movie.

(Edit: JAN 11th - Now with 210 reviews and about 16K votes, only 10% are "1" and the most common votes cluster around "7" and "8" which is a much better representation of the movie itself.)

Yes, it is by a black writer-director. Yes, the focus is on a battalion of black women in WW2. But it is derived from real people and real events and is a good and meaningful movie. I cannot imagine an educated and empathetic viewer finding great fault with this movie.

It is the 1940s and the war in Europe is far from being decided. One problem is the mail, soldiers are not getting letters from their families. And, families are not getting letters from their sons and daughters deployed overseas. Battalion number 6888 of black women are sent to get the mail back on track, those who sent them were sure they would fail. They had six months to unravel the mail mess contained in several full warehouses in the UK. They were given quarters that were dirty and in disrepair. In spite of things being stacked against them, they were able to do the job and in half that time allotted.

This movie isn't about how realistically or not the fighting is portrayed; it is about battalion 6888 and what they did. The end credits show some original footage of the women in the 1940s plus some snippets of a few of those women still living in modern times.

My wife and I watched it at home, streaming, after our usual Saturday night steak and wine dinner. We both give it a hearty "thumbs up."

It is unfortunate that such an extremely deserved story was told in such a basic manner. I and many people in America and beyond do not know the story of these extremely skilled individuals who helped in winning a war, and for the simple matter of learning even a bit about the 6888, this movie is worth showing and watching.

But as a film, this movie lacks effort, which I have no doubt is due to Netflix. The set never looks lived in, but like a set to play in. The makeup often looks too well done, reminding us this is a movie. Many more qualified people have pointed out the incorrect verbiage and actions of the soldiers involved, which is not excusable in a movie about soldiers. The acting is fairly stilted, but the fualt cannot be placed solely on the actors, but the director and producers involved.

It is truly a dissapointment that a film which ultimately aimed to honor and shed light on such important and often ignored individuals, failed to put in the care they deserved. If you care to learn about the 6888, watch the beginning and the end, and research from there. You'll spend the same amount of time as if you watched the entire movie, but you will actually learn about these heros.

There are more than these two faults in the movie. The two privates that were killed in the truck were killed on the 12th of May 1945. The war was over than in Europe. Furthermore the Lt killed in the plane was killed during assistance to ground troops fighting the Germans on the 19th december 1943. There were no ground troops fighting in the advance area yet. Dday was in the 6th of June 1944. Giving these wonderful women their respect makes details important.

The movie was good. Wonder if there were moren of these wrong details in the movie. Let me know if you found some. Always

Movie ok. Details poor.

The actual story is absolutely amazing, definitely one of triumph over adversity. What ruined it for me was how all the actors looked so polished and preened. If you watch the real footage at the end, there is not one scrap of makeup on the female soldiers. This made it feel unauthentic. I also found the script and some of the acting a bit woolly.

Saying that, what the actual battalion did in real life was and is incredible. It's worth a watch just to learn what they actually achieved. I just wish the film did real justice to those soldiers. I feel like they would have been a lot tougher in reality and certainly wouldn't have looked like they'd just stepped out of a beauty salon.