This movie is perfect example how timing matters, or how unlucky you can be due to your timing.
The movie isn't bad and definitely watchable, but in a age of Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Thin Red Line (1998), it was doomed for failure.
I think we can see clearly in this scene (my favorite of the movie btw) why.
The actors are OK, the set is damn near perfect, same for costumes, effects are OK, the mood is very depressive (or at least trying for it to make it look serious) but the combat is on a level of looney tunes - which is oxymoron.
If this had come out one year earlier, it might have had some box office success, but HBO (producer) tried to milk the WW2 genre to the max - riding the WW2 wave of 1998 instead and it backfired.
In 1997, there would be nothing else to compare it to and would be maybe even commended for trying to portray the war bit more realistically ( I use the term loosely here.), with the USA not just crushing the Nazis left and right with no effort and the good guys start dying in not romanticized ways anymore - like in most older movies, and the movie itself doesn't represent itself as "family friendly" anymore, but makes attempt to make bit more dark, bit more depressive adding some gore to portray the war a bit more realistically.
Except, the combat is still laughable, the deaths in a way comical as oppose to shocking - which was their intent, the running forward with flamethrower (that apparently has about 3m reach - like your domestic one for ants) whilst shooting it into air instead of pointing at the very least at the Germans, is a tough pill to swallow - if the movie is trying to take itself more serious.
I mean, this is pretty much Windtalkers (2002) but on a low budget in comparison - another wasted opportunity.
"Were going to make war disgusting and depressing, were going to shock people!" - I bet was what they were going for; and then, Saving Private Ryan first 10 minutes crushed their vision from "depressing, realistic and shocking" and put it onto same level like the looney tunes.
I actually saw this movie before Saving Private Ryan and I thought it was OK, but hardly any scene was memorable to me except this part with the 88, but Saving Private Ryan gave me pretty much a slap into my face and "woke me up" from childhood into forced me to change into a man within that first 20 minutes of it - that's how big of a difference it was in how "realistic and shocking" they were in comparison.
I made a full "special" about it here if interested in more details: • Saving Private Ryan (1...
This movie never stood a chance, but that doesn't mean that with the time passing by, i didn't get the urge to re-watch a good ww2 movie and this popped into my mind as something that I have seen only once before and it was good enough as I remembered it.
And it is, if you struggle to find new WW2 movie that you haven't already seen 5times or more, you might as well give this one a try. It's pretty good, it holds its own when not compared to what is a pinnacle of cinematography like Saving Private Ryan is.
It was just a bad timing really, the movie deserved to do better.
Негізгі бет When Trumpets Fade (1998) - GI's destroying German 88 Flak in Hertgen Forest (Scene)
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