It’s time for a very dramatic war film. Get ready for a lot of unlikable characters running around. It’s a film that will keep you engaged the whole time to be sure but I do think it could have used a few boosts to really make it a very solid title. Maybe more war scenes since surprisingly that doesn’t actually happen until the very end of the film. Most of it is really just setup and a bunch of hazing.

The movie kicks off with Prewitt being transferred over to a new war base. He was unsatisfied at the last posting because he didn’t get the promotion that he felt was deserved. Warden’s job is to see to it that Prewitt joins the army’s boxing club because otherwise his boss will be upset. Prewitt refuses due to an incident that happened back when he was a boxer so now he has to try and stay strong while the army attempts to bully him into submission. Will he be able to stick to his guns or will the army break him? That is really the core plot of the movie and that seems to happen a lot in these titles. Half the time you feel like if these army guys are your allies then you’re already in hot water.

The movie does have a few subplots though but they don’t do much to help the movie. For starters we have Warden getting into an affair with his boss’s wife. Huge fatal mistake right there. As I’ve always said there is no real coming back from cheating and when the Warden made a conscientious effort to get to her, he was already doomed. It’s a shame because he had a lot of entertaining scenes otherwise. He makes for a pretty solid boss. Certainly a corrupt one, but a guy who is very crafty and careful with his wording. Warden knows how to manipulate people and how to stay safe amidst all of the inter army politics.

He prides himself on being a very smart guy so it’s a shame that he makes such a dumb mistake. Ultimately this subplot persists throughout most of the movie until some stuff happens in the climax and he decides to switch goals. Not due to any kind of redemption arc though so his personality hasn’t gotten any better. He’s still not someone you can possibly root for. Naturally the boss’s wife is also pretty bad in having her affairs. Everyone is cheating on someone in this film and it plays a big part in why all of the romances are so weak.

Prewitt has a romance going on too but it’s also not a great one. He falls in love with one of the girls at the club he visits and doesn’t seem to understand that it’s their job to act nice with everyone. He immediately gets super possessive and starts to cause a lot of trouble with everyone. The guy can’t hold his drinks super well and gets really annoying for large parts of the film. Ultimately when the chips are down he doesn’t listen to the girl and runs off which is always a trend in these things.

He only has one friend in the army who has his back, Maggio. Unfortunately Maggio is even worse at holding his liquor and picks a bunch of fights as well. Ultimately this doesn’t end well for the guy which is unfortunate. The film is definitely filled with quite a few tragedies as all of the characters tend to end things off worse than how they started. Most of this is because of drinks or generally just not being great people though.

In general the film’s writing is good. When you take away the individual characters for a moment, you’ve got a strong film about trying to resist everyone forcing you into a path you don’t want to follow. It’s incredibly difficult when everyone is against you and there is all kinds of corruption within the ranks. I do think it would be enough to completely turn you against the army and try to get out of there. If this kind of thing happened to enough folks there would be so many mutiny attempts and the army would really go crazy. It’s always unfortunate to see so many people within the film be okay with it though.

These are theoretically the heroes we’re supposed to be rooting for when the villains attack but it’s hard to do so when you see how cruel they are. This leads to vigilante justice as the film goes on which is really shown to be the only effective way to stop them. You basically have to root for Prewitt because otherwise nothing is going to get done. The ending feels a bit unnecessary as the lead didn’t think things through but the final fight was on point. Felt like a grim ending that happened because it was planned out (Or I guess that’s how it happened in real life perhaps) but the setup in the film really didn’t make any kind of sense. Like going out to try and prove something that didn’t need proving.

Ultimately this is a movie that is really just held back by the characters. They all have significant flaws which keeps them from being likable. Any character who seems nice enough quickly has a film ending flaw before the adventure is over. Whether it be getting drunk the whole time, having a quick temper, not being very smart, cheating, etc. The idea is probably to be as realistic as possible which can be a depressing thought in itself. The film is based on true events to an extent so I was mixed on whether I would give this one a score or not. Ultimately it was about a 50/50 since a lot of events were true but it seems like the names were switched and a bunch of extra stuff was added. Might as well throw it in.

Overall, The movie had some good ideas but ultimately I would have to give it a thumbs down. After a point having a cast filled with unlikable characters will often bring down the film as a whole. The whole thing feels pretty unfair to the main character the whole time and things never really went well for him. Again you’d feel sorrier for him if he was more likable but that’s how it goes. If you really enjoy seeing the inner workings of an army base and what the day to day could look like then you should have a good time here but you can definitely do a lot better with these old war films.

Overall 4/10