I saw this when it was first screened in Australia (over a couple of nights) and remember how starkly it contrasted with heroics in most views of warfare. Here are a group of British soldiers put in the impossible situation of 'peacekeeping' without being able to engage an enemy.
The bulk of the story follows the day-to-day life of a mechanised UN patrol as they patrol former Yugoslavia, a little over a decade ago, and looks at both the 'soldiering' and the little vignettes of interaction, from a chat over a cigarette to daily staff briefings. Combined with a somewhat documentary-style direction, the overall feel is more like a news crew travelled with the unit and cut together a bit of everything that happened.
I love the Brits acting in this; there is a gritty realism and subtlety from the lead soldiers as they become increasingly frustrated that they can only watch terrible acts of ethnic cleansing and human cruelty, without being allowed to intervene.
One of the most interesting parts of this piece is that it doesn't cut at the moment of relief, when the soldiers leave to fly into the sunset and return home. A significant amount of time looks at how they handle day-to-day life upon returning. No fanfare, no pride in a job well done, but a constant feeling of detachment from daily life and being unable to return to the 'normal' - how do you worry about which type of coffee to buy when you saw children being burned out of their homes?
There are some brilliantly chilling scenes from the Lieutenants at the end as guilt and anger surface months down the track. I must have watched this 5 years ago, and can still picture the last moments with Ioan Gruffudd - there is so much said without a word of dialogue.
Definitely worth watching - this highlights some of the emotions that don't get felt in the big war blockbusters, where the heroes can feel good about serving a cause.
I only wish I had watched it with someone else at the time - there were so many personal ethics questions I had prickling as the credits rolled up.
The bulk of the story follows the day-to-day life of a mechanised UN patrol as they patrol former Yugoslavia, a little over a decade ago, and looks at both the 'soldiering' and the little vignettes of interaction, from a chat over a cigarette to daily staff briefings. Combined with a somewhat documentary-style direction, the overall feel is more like a news crew travelled with the unit and cut together a bit of everything that happened.
I love the Brits acting in this; there is a gritty realism and subtlety from the lead soldiers as they become increasingly frustrated that they can only watch terrible acts of ethnic cleansing and human cruelty, without being allowed to intervene.
One of the most interesting parts of this piece is that it doesn't cut at the moment of relief, when the soldiers leave to fly into the sunset and return home. A significant amount of time looks at how they handle day-to-day life upon returning. No fanfare, no pride in a job well done, but a constant feeling of detachment from daily life and being unable to return to the 'normal' - how do you worry about which type of coffee to buy when you saw children being burned out of their homes?
There are some brilliantly chilling scenes from the Lieutenants at the end as guilt and anger surface months down the track. I must have watched this 5 years ago, and can still picture the last moments with Ioan Gruffudd - there is so much said without a word of dialogue.
Definitely worth watching - this highlights some of the emotions that don't get felt in the big war blockbusters, where the heroes can feel good about serving a cause.
I only wish I had watched it with someone else at the time - there were so many personal ethics questions I had prickling as the credits rolled up.