I caught this film at random on a flight to NZ and in truth it's just an unremarkable marriage of narrative documentary and reenactment.
But I went into this film blind and came to realise as it progressed that the tale Ed tells of his WW2 experience is largely of what also befell my S. African grandfather - same battle, same POW experiences including an ill-fated boat crossing. Catching a dramatic chapter of personal family history via film is bizarre…
As per Glen Chapman's review, I went into this expecting 2 hours of Liam Neeson punching wolves in the face. What you get instead is a well-written, well-acted survival story. The primary narrative is very basic, but the men involved are allowed in their tired, shivering bitter arguments and huddled fire-side conversations to become real, meaningful characters with interesting motivations. On top a philosophical bent to the film threads through everything culminating in a sparingly detailed but powerful ending.
A bizarre documentary about meth-heads, outcasts and PTSD-suffering hermits living in a hellishly hot, impoverished corner of SoCal; eking out a living by scavenging non-ferrous metals from the enormous active military shooting and bombing range nearby. These guys drive out onto a harsh environment with unexploded ordnance lying all over the place, even while jets bomb and helicopters strafe other parts of the range; they have to watch for the military police who will arrest them and destroy their vehicles,…
