Alone We Fight

If you are stickler for cultural accuracy, you likely will not appreciate this film. The concept of the modern therapeutic culture did not exist in in 1944. There was no Prozac or Paxil and no one other than Hollywood starlets and upper middle class Manhattan socialites had a therapist. Now please, don't get me wrong. I in no way wish to diminish the emotional stress or trauma of combat veterans. Not at all. Never. But this film is a seemingly endless group therapy session between Army Rangers while in a combat setting, a more improbable scenario than which I cannot imagine and which is best exemplified by a scene in which Rangers who have volunteered for a seeming suicide mission, facing an outflanking German counteroffensive, sit loading rifle magazines at a desultory pace, discussing, with no urgency, their fears and motivations. These are the ways in which modern, non-military men would behave. But in this film, such men are transported back to 1944 for a field group therapy session. Not my cup of tea.

So to start of the idea is kinda fun, but was proly made it basicly looked like a low Budget Bollywood film with only the uniforms being good. However half of the movie was boring, the battle Scene were lame and unrealistic... for example 3 Germans following 2 americans who are running in a straight line 3 Germans throw there grenades, yes there grenades at open Targets that are Maybe 15mn away and These grenades land next to them... an Explosion happens that was smaller then my 2 Euro Firework, all 3 of These grenades landed next to them and Nothing happend, more of These low Budget explosions accure mortar Shells for example like litearly nothin There are way more scence like this and belief me, if you are a fan of history in General you are gonna cry the intire movie..... dont watch it.... spend your time watching paint dry, its more worth it than watching this garbage movie

The most exciting piece is the beginning, where we are being told, that it is Belgium, December 44 and apparently there's a war going on. Of course, as it is quite usual for European winter, the sun is shining, the leaves are green, the forest is quiet and welcoming and there's not a single snowflake around. How lucky, cos at supposedly the same time, just a few miles away, in Bruges, Americans were freezing in the knee high snow, Anyone cares to explain why there are some fires randomly scattered around for no reason? Then we got a bunch of American GIs, still in their battle gear, walked by German soldiers, who again, for no reason decide to waste time on digging a hole and then proceed to murder two captives. Why only two you ask? Well, the evil can not prevail, so our POWs are finally deciding that enough is enough, and in a twisted turnaround they kill their captors. Enough is enough, so I say, no reason to watch this rubbish anymore. .

Some of the main character's acting was actually better then expected for a low budget movie.... but the historical accuracy made me cringe so hard and so often that my fitbit thought I ran a marathon. A ranger unit landing at D-day supposedly all being from the same high school football team is just not how it worked. They would have all met for the first time in training. Far worse, is when they come up behind German mortar unit... with absolute surprise, in what world would you lob a grenade and hope for the best versus just shooting them in the back? I had to stop it after that scene because I was getting angry.

Writer & director Justin Lee's low-budget, loquacious, World War II epic "Alone We Fight" set against the background of the fireworks in the blood-splattered Battle of Hürtgen Forest suffers from slow-pacing and one incredibly stupid moment when our heroes neglect to blow up a light armored German vehicle in the woods. A bearded Corbin Bernsen shows up in a cameo as Colonel Bradley Armstrong and provides audiences with the basics that our heroes are up against the enemy. Afterward, he disappears. Nothing wrong with his brief appearance, but Johnny Messner is woefully wasted in a nothing role as Captain Hank Kedry who shows up near the ending as a Sherman tank commander. Meanwhile, Sergeant Gregory Falcone (Aidan Bristow of "American Mummy"), Private Michael 'Boston' O'Reilly (Matthew James McCarthy of "A Reckoning"), and Private Benjamin Archer (Philip Nathanael of "Hard Sun") are all who remains of the American Rangers. When Colonel Armstrong warns them that the Germans are poised to strike the aid station, kill the wounded, and rape the two female medics, Sergeant Falcone volunteers to lead a mission into enemy-occupied terrain to blow up a fuel depot which will halt the German advance. Sadly, the low-budget stands out, with less than thirty actors and actresses. The leafy, green forest conceals most of everything, and we are never given the perspective from the enemy's viewpoint. They are just ruthless, SS Nazis, and all they do is kill, kill, and kill. Our heroes-initially a quartet-are captured at the outset of the action, and these notorious SS troops force them to dig their own graves. One of the four refuses to comply to their murderous demands, and the surviving three turn the tables on the Germans and kill them. After this promising opening scene, director Justin Lee allows the action to slack as the survivors make it back to an aid station and recuperate and learn about the terrible prospects awaiting them and their friends if they don't counterattack. The basic outline of Lee's screenplay isn't bad, but he has this awful problem of dragging things out. Although we come to sympathize with the Rangers, we know that the formulaic War Movie clichés are going to lock down the action. Literally, nothing surprising happens during this respectable, 91-minute shoot'em up. Predictably, you can guess which of the intrepid three is going to die, and then the Germans settle down to whittle the other two down. Our heroes blow up the meager fuel depot and use a light attack vehicle as cover for their depredations. Unfortunately, they neglected to disable the attack vehicle, and the Germans pursue them in it as our heroes flee for their lives. In real life, I don't think that hardened, combat seasoned soldiers like these guys would have overlook the hazards that the light attack vehicle would present. Mind you, I struggle to keep up with these low-budget World War II movies, and I wonder if anybody advised Lee about some of the incidents in the action. However, if this movie excites you, then you should watch some episodes of the ABC-TV series "Combat" because the squad in that revered series faced similar perils on a weekly basis with greater realism. Altogether, "Alone We Fight" isn't abysmal, or as abysmal as another recent low-budget W.W. 2 outing entitled "Wunderland" which takes place during the Battle of the Bulge. Of course, "Alone We Fight" never gives us a genuine picture of the hardships that American G.I.s confronted when their absent-minded commanders plunged them into action in the Hürtgen Forest. Performances are competent as is "A Reckoning's" lenser Justin Janowitz's cinematography.