Hero on the Front

Aníbal Augusto Milhais (João Arrais) is one of the many soldiers sent to Flanders during World War I. At the battle of La Lys, contrary to orders from the major, Milhões decides to face successive German offensives alone to ensure the withdrawal of the companions. In the year marking the centenary of the 1st world war, we follow the path of the soldier Milhais, worth millions, through the memories of the war! Based on actual events, Aníbal Milhais's story is built, where it denotes the good work of the team, especially at the moments inside the war. At the same time, the filmmakers showed the life of the protagonist elder, with his family, especially the relationship with his daughter Adelaide. The war sequences are pretty cool, even more taking in consideration the limited resources that the Portuguese cinema has. We do not see large crowds, but we see the nervousness, anxiety, the fear that lurks on the other side of the trenches, while the Fellowship plays a very important role. I need to congratulate the team who made this movie for the courage to bring the Portuguese history to the big screen, in a tribute to a national hero, in commemoration of the 100 years of the end of World War I. As your commander said: "Tu és Milhais, mas vales Milhões" and Portugal can finally understand why in a movie theater. For the record, there's not a single cringe scene in the entire movie, and that's already worth a star!

"Tu és Milhais mas vales milhões" (Your name is Milhais but you are worth millions). This was what the commander of the platoon to which the soldier Milhais belonged told him when he rejoined his group after having remained behind in their trench to fight alone a large number of German soldiers who were assaulting his trench thus protecting the retreat of his comrades. He went from one machine gun to another making the enemy to believe that there were several soldiers fighting them and not only one. He was successful and got the highest miltary insígnia given to a private in Portugal. And he kept that second name forever. It was even added to his village name This was actually true and and occurred in Flanders where Portiguese troops fought the German along with the Allies particularly in the La Lys battle in WWI. All the actors do an excellent job and the movie is technically very good namely by crossing the battle scenes with some later scenes when Milhões was already in his village trying to hunt a wolf and keeping a tender relationship with his little daugher Adelaide. The whole movie atmosphere is very realistic.

Although i do believe this film could have been made better.. the story behind this film is special. With there not being many if any films of the Portuguese during the great war (1914-18), I think this film depicts amazingly the story of Anibal Milhais (The Protagonist) who is the most decorated Portuguese soldier of all time. Moreover, as a Portuguese person myself, this film has a special place in my heart, as it accurately shows the horrors of war. I think it is worth a watch although it is no 10/10 film it is still a very good film especially for WW1 enthusiasts who love to learn about the Great War and those who didn't know Portugal was involved.

I actually quite enjoyed the story behind this film. However, the inaccurate depiction of use of the Lewis Gun totally spoiled it for me, and I got increasingly frustrated towards the end of the film, as Milhais continued to fire Lewis guns for long periods without ever reloading.

The Lewis was a light machine gun, intended to be fired in bursts. It fires at a rate of 500 rounds per minute. The pan magazines hold 47 or 97 rounds, so even using the larger magazine, firing the gun constantly empties the magazine in just over 10 seconds. In normal use, Lewis gunners were accompanied by a loader, who changed the magazines, and several others who carried the large number of magazines necessary to keep up a high rate of fire. However Milhais is shown firing the Lewis as if it were a belt-fed machine gun, without it ever being reloaded, and with no spare magazines in sight. This lack of authenticity completely ruined the film for me.

Did a bad review about this movie, a couple of months ago, but I've gave it another try... Things changed a bit... I saw it with another eyes, and the second time around, I enjoy it a bit more.

There's, still, so little action here... I would love to see more battle scenes (there's few WWI movies)..., unfortunately, portuguese are, still, a bit slow on movie writing... Still the movie deserves the 2nd view... But I'm proud for sharing the same country as this hero, Soldado Milhões... Too bad the movie didn't tell all the story, and showed that the british were cowards, and left behind a group of farmers, with almost no fighting experience... Still, we showed our gut, and our courage, and that's way more than they did...