DIE HARD meets PRIVATE RYAN meets THE ODYSSEY

Rating: 8/10 (13 January 2020)

Definitely on the must list for this corterie. I'm not a fusillier (or whatever BT calls hisself), but the weapons and kit looked smack on. The manufactured trenches were enough to give one the willies, and wonder how they trained all those rats. There's not a plot-it's all in the journey, er, quest. Characters met along the way make the story. In a series, protagonist (not hero) encounters officer fixated on his watch to get it exactly correct; officer incoherent and in tears, useless; officer too busy to be bothered. Best line from a major who knows the message is to not attack, 'Have witnesses when you deliver the order to the colonel, there are men who love to go on fighting."
The "one take" technique works ( fun to watch where the transitions are; they obviously couldn't shoot in one take), by the end of the trek, you're much more tired than with the usual scene breaks. Impressed by sequence in ruined city lit by falling flares; the shadows move realistically.
They avoid a blatant moral. The cumulative affect by the end if how stupid war is. No glorifying. Pathos avoided-well, the mother, baby encounter a bit much-and just enough sentimentality.
Quibbles: I'm no geography expert, but don't think there's raging rivers with tall waterfall in that part of France.