Think of it as a Well-Made Documentary

Rating: Null/10 (20 June 2003)

I felt like many of the times in the movie I was watching a combat cameraman's footage of the fight. Very similar to how I felt in "Saving Private Ryan" (remember the fight at the radar site). As far as character development. This is a 24 hour almost-continuos firefight. Kinda hard to solve the mysteries of life when your buddies are being shown blown in half by an RPG. There is enough, Eversman from scared first timer to combat vet leader. Grimes from office clerk to young warrior. Durant from cocky spec op heli pilot to eyewitness to a supremely brave act and then resigned P.O.W.
This movie is an example of the change that has occurred in recently from the 50's, 60's, and 70's war movies. The actual horrors and stress of war were only briefly shown or alluded to. They were an almost glamorization of war. Yeah, I bought into it too. Now days you see that to be a warrior requires a sacrifice, of limb, mind, even life. You see the chaos and disorder of war (the fog of war).
I wish this would have been available in my days as an officer in the US Army. As a tool to prepare a young combat arms officer to be a combat leader, this would have been invaluable. Perhaps someone in the Pentagon will realize the need to teach about combat stress and not about sexual harassment or equal opportunity.