This review is based on the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s time for a film based on the dramatic story of the Bat’21. It makes for a pretty solid thriller and since I knew nothing about the real life events, it was all still very real and exciting for me. Definitely another reminder of why travelling across enemy lines for any reason is always dangerous and you never know what will happen. Being stranded has to be one of the worst nightmares of things that can happen to you.

The movie starts with Gene getting shot down over Vietnam and the rest of the men die. He manages to contact “Birddog” the call sign for one of the guys manning a helicopter. Gene hoped for a quick extraction but it won’t be so easy here since the whole place is basically a fire field and there are enemies all over the place. He will need to try and survive a whole night here but that won’t be easy. Additionally what if that one night turns into two? Gene is going to have to start thinking about planning his own way out of here or his life may be over a whole lot sooner than he expected.

The movie properly gets across how scary it is to be alone in the forest at night. Even when nobody is around you think you hear things. The natural wildlife certainly isn’t pleasant and it’s also incredibly dark out there. A single wrong move like stepping on a branch will absolutely be heard for miles. Additionally since you’re in another country you can’t just run out of there. You could be running for months and never make it anywhere close to America. In fact that’s basically a guarantee since you can’t just run out of there.

It’s also a tough numbers game because of course you could just blow up most of the area and evacuate him but the government’s not trying to burn down all of the innocents in the area too. Home court advantage isn’t with the U.S. and so a lot of the enemies are taking shelter with families in the tents. The longer Gene stays in Vietnam, the more he begins to doubt the mission as he sees just how brutal things get there.

One of the main themes here is how the war doesn’t look nearly as bad on paper but once you’re out on the field it can be a lot tougher to stomach. His life certainly wouldn’t be the same after this, that’s for sure. He also has to make some tough calls while on the ground on if he will fight or just succumb to what happens next. He doesn’t always handle the situation perfectly but it’s hard to ask for much more since he’s not accustomed to this.

Meanwhile Birddog has to be the MVP here. He takes a lot of great risks to help Gene out even when it means going against orders. It’s a tough situation but even so he knows that some of the orders don’t make sense, like sacrificing Gene and so he makes a move. When the going gets tough, the best characters will make a move and follow their instincts even when other characters tell them not to do something.

It’s why Birddog’s such a great guy. He never loses his humanity during all of this and you know that he’s someone you can count on. He intends to keep his word all the way to the end. I also liked his friend who led the air battalion to support extracting Gene. Things don’t go very well for them but the important part was that they tried. It would have been nice if someone could have helped them out though.

The movie is certainly very serious so you will see your share of sad moments here. Behind enemy lines there isn’t really such a thing as a 100% victory. There are going to be losses that pop up and the cycle of violence is another thing to consider. Each side keeps retaliating more and more which keeps increasing the body count and it’s always super difficult to be the one to stop it. However you do need someone to step up or ultimately everyone will be dead.

I definitely get why the airplanes ultimately took out the village though. While Gene was right that not everyone was a combatant, after a point they were being used to keep arming the others and providing a place to rest. It’s a no win situation and ultimately everyone loses so you have to choose who you protect and who to sacrifice. Never an easy call for sure.

Overall, Bat’21 is a pretty solid film. There is constant tension and danger in the air throughout the movie. You really see just how much the soldiers had to deal with on a daily basis during the war and of course it wouldn’t get any easier when they would get back home to a lot of disapproval. At the end of the day the soldiers didn’t ask to be stationed here but once they arrived they had to do their best to stay alive. Gene got to see first hand how rough this was and of course in the end the moral is that war is never a fun thing. It’s why you have to avoid it as long as you can but ultimately be prepared to fight when it comes to you.