Battle Force

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.

To be fair, I watched only the first 20 minutes of this movie, so my comments are only based on that. I might have hung around if WWII Sicily's "landscape" wasn't so easily recognizable as that of Southern California. I gave up hope when several shots showed the film's characters walking along railroad tracks on top of modern concrete ties with modern signals in the background.

I get the feeling this movie was a film school project. And if it was, then I guess it's OK for that purpose. If not, at least it was a good opportunity for inexperienced actors to put something in their blank resumes.

The combat special effects were OK... enough has been said by others regarding the realism of the combat itself, but I thought the special effects used for weapons discharge and bullet flight was OK... more realistic than those we used to see 15-20 years ago. That earned this movie its 3rd star.

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.

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.

Sorry folks.....this movie has terrible acting and a terrible script. Simple awful.

I really enjoy WWII movies and have seen 100s of them. Realism is a must in any good action flick (Patton, Go Tell The Spartans, Das Boot, etc).

From haircuts to scripted words and phrases, this movie was strictly 1975ish.

The German commander could well have been the commandant on "Hogan's Heroes" and I kept expecting Sgt. Schultz to appear in the next scene.

The best part was when this thing finally ended.

Do yourself a favor and view an old episode of "F Troop" instead!