The Last Front

A farmer and his family's grieving is cut short when a German battalion is crossing the Belgian countryside to invade France. While many of the villagers have fled for the safety and security of France, the farmer and many others stayed back, believing that the Germans would be civil and moral towards civilians. Little did they know that the battalion commander does not follow the same rules of engagement as his superiors, and the villagers are left with the difficult decision to flee and survive or stay and fight.

This is a unique World War I movie. It is a short war movie with a runtime of 1 hour and 38 minutes. The story starts slowly but intensifies quickly, slowing down intermittently until the end. The story does not give a lot of backstory to any characters or elaborate on the war situation. The action is limited but engaging. The movie is excellent for anyone who enjoys all World War movies, but it might not be for everyone. It's definitely a stream when looking for a short, unique war movie.

When I was growing up, there were always British films set in Middle Europe, Asia, Africa, and elsewhere in which the characters were not British and whose language wasn't English, being played by British actors because the films were English language films intended for English speaking audiences. I got used to associating British accents with everyone in Europe, Asia, etc.

This is one of those films. It's set in Belgium and has German characters (the German army) and Belgian characters, but no British characters and almost all the cast is British. The dialog is spoken in British upper and upper-middle class dialects, and that just kills my ability to suspend my disbelief in order to follow the story.

I wonder why all of the listed Belgian producers would decide to have a British cast with their jarringly British accents playing the roles instead of having actual Belgian actors speaking Flemish and French, and German speaking actors playing the soldiers. The producers could have provided English subtitles for English speaking audiences.

That might have made for a better film.

Good to tell this story but why is everyone talking English? Why isn't this story told with German and Flemish actors?

Anyway it's good to tell the story about what happened behind the fronts. How war is a personal tragedy followed by another. How it affected the civilians and not only the soldiers in the trenches.

The story itself is quite plain like an old book for kids with some good guys and bad guys (surprise the Germans are the bad guys). The action is ok, some scenes about family values and there's romance, some loss. So it has all the ingredients but sadly the result isn't as good as it should have been.

The cast and cinematography give their best, but the script asks too much of the audience to believe one hell of a slippery slop and misguided actions that feel too haphazard even for the times of WWII. Now yes, villagers get scared and dumb stuff happens...but a militant squad of the Third Reich being this incompetent because it's a father-son masquerading as a force to be reckoned with? I'm sorry, but that kind of power doesn't just shirk German lives like this and let civilians catch them off-guard. Most the soldiers don't even seem to do more than stare and point their rifles. The revenge arc of both Leonard and Laurentz are not satisfying as both seem lethargic in their quest to be good men. And both seem okay with allowing lots of grief upon circle.

It is true that German soldiers committed atrocities in Belgium in WW1 and it is a story that should be told. But not like this. Dreadful script and poorly directed. Turgid scenes where there should be jeopardy and tension. It is hugely disappointing and it doesn't do justice to an important and rarely told story.