When it comes to modern WW2 films, there are a lot of shit films that catch your attention with their Saving Private Ryan style dvd covers, great artwork, but then you start the film and it plays and you realise that it is infact some shitty low-budget shot on cheap ass HD cameras, shot in some obvious midwestern forest in the U.S and at somepoint a bloody woman walking her dog would show up in the background type of film which makes it look like a home movie, bad acting, bad directing, shockingly bad script and almost no research done on the subject matter for the actual film. Only one low-budget WW2 film that I as a film fan have come across that actually hit's the level of a professional studio film is the movie Saints & Soldiers, a bloody good war film, so it was refreshing when I found a film made by us Brits about the formation of the british 30 commando unit by Bond author Ian Flemming. The dvd cover was a bit shit so from that I had little hope for the film and that mr. Danny Dyer was in it. Im a Dyer fan but after some of the shit that has come out with his name attached it was safe to say that I was a bit apprehensive, then I hear that Sean Bean is also in it. My hopes were raised slightly higher being a fan of Bean and recently finding the HBO show Game Of Thrones to be a bloody good show so I thought fuck it, you've seen some shit pete, this can't be as bad. I popped in the dvd and pressed play. What followed was a well researched, very well acted especially by Mr. Dyer and incredibly well directed action thriller that reminded me of the days of the Men on A Mission type of war movie. While certainly not hitting the heights of The Dirty Dozen and Kelly's Heroes, the film was entertaining, fast paced and very entertaining.
The film starts with Dyer and a his men retreating from zee germans through a forest, I forget which one but it's in France, The rest of his platoon is dead and there are only three of them left. They come across another unit of the British army and after disobeying a direct order from a commanding officer to go to the front, Dyer assaults him and is sent to a military prison. He comes across another inmate named Brightly played by Stephen Walters (the guy who spits a lot in Mean Machine) who was part of a commando unit headed by Sean Bean.
Meanwhile intelligence officer Ian Flemming (Bond creator) meets with Bean and a Norweigen/American named Steiner and they are given orders to construct a small 8 man commando unit to drop into occupied Norway to capture vital German Radar technology that could determin the outcome of the war. Bean says that one of the men he wants is Brightly and he manages to get him released from Military prison. Seeing an opportunity, Dyer pulls a gun on Bean and manages to escape the prison and is put into the Commando unit. After a lengthy part of the film focusing on the training of the commando's in the scottish highlands, they're mission is a go and we jump from Scotland to Norway. Once on the ground it's time to rendevouz with a S.O.E (Special Operations Executive) agent and to get main orders from there. Things go from bad to worse as they're tracked by a squad of german soldiers that culminates in an all out battle.
When it comes to the cast, you have a great line up of British talent here, sure they aint in the same league as Ian Mckellen or John Simm, but when you have Danny Dyer, Sean Bean and James D'Arcy you expect a level of professionalism when it comes to the acting and this film doesn't disappoint. Sean Bean is great as always as Major Jones, leader of the unit and obviously called on his experiences as a Spec Ops soldier in the Film Bravo Two Zero as inspiration for the role as he commands the men in the unit.
James D'Arcy is very good as Ian Flemming and while not having as much screen time as Dyer and Bean is still great to watch.
Then we have mr. Danny Dyer himself. After years of playing cockney geezer types in a unhealthy amount of cheap ass Brit gangland films, here he is given a chance to act, and I mean act, when he's not one note, he's a pretty descent actor. Dyer plays Rains, the wrongfully imprisoned soldier determind to earn the respect of Bean who thinks, at first, just wanted a quick way out of prison but eventually finds out that Rains is a determined soldier who's main priority is his mission and his fellow soldiers. Dyer has some interesting scenes in which to act, the first being his confrontation with the british officer at the start followed by a brilliant scene in which he is made to beg for a second chance while holding a rifle above his head. I don't know why he doesn't go more for these types of films instead of hanging around with Nick Love, Tamer Hassan and Craig Fairbrass because out of the latter two, he is the better actor and should make a move out geezer type casting.
Now to the direction and screenplay. The film was written by Adrian Vitoria and Ed Scates and directed by Vitoria. Having seen Vitoria's previous film The Crew and finding it an absolute mess with its Livipudlian gangland story and annoying characters, it's great to see that he's done something different than staying on the gangster movie production line. The period detail is good, the weapons, costumes and vehicles are good. There is a great shot of Whitehall whith Air ships covering the skies of London (obviously done in post production) and when we hit Norway he gives us epic, sweeping helicopter shots of a vast white wasteland, which really made me remember Where Eagles Dare. The action is handled very well and the final gun battle between the commandos and the nazi's is shot brilliantly, grenades explode, gunfire fills the air and it all looks very Hollywood. The dialogue is pretty good too especially coming from the training officers, all loud sweary and scottish. Some of can come across as a bit wrong at times but it mostly flows very well.
The film has had some scathing reviews and I want to give this a prositive review, I really did find my self enjoying this film, It could have been longer but I guess with a relatively small budget they had to keep it short. A lot of reviews have accused the film of using every cliché under the sun, but that's not the case, sure it does at times feel as though you've seen it before but fuck, this is the 21st century, everything has already been done. I admire the filmmakers for attempting to tell a story and make it in the best way they possibly could, so what if it, as some reviews have said, rips off other better and classic films, it's a war movie about a group of men on a mission, fucking Tarantino made one but everyone praised him, Vitoria makes a film that for me echoed the fun of watching the classic flicks like Where Eagles Dare, The Dirty Dozen and Guns Of Navarone, and made it watchable, thrilling and god damn entertaining. I know a lot of people will be pissed off about it being 'unoriginal' but it's a war movie about our boys, not some unit of american G.I's, it's about us brits because hollywood looks like it's forgotten that we were fighting WW2 long before Japan dragged they're patriotic asses into the conflict and I my self have spent the last 5 years of my life researching the formation of the british commandos for my own screenplay although that one does have zombies in it so it definitely wont be historically accurate, but it's a war film in which the British army are not all stiff upper lips and what oh chaps, it's a war movie about the comon man, doing his duty for king and country, and I tell you it entertained the fuck out of me and Ive read that it's the first in a planned trilogy so come on guys be patriotic, support an independent british filmmakers and help us wave a two finger salute to the gung ho stylings of Hollywood idea of war....
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