An emotional, gritty, unrealistic action movie

Rating: 9/10 (28 February 2015)

I watched this movie without having heard anything about it, which I find to be the best way to watch movies for myself. Going into it I'm thinking Inglorious Bastards, just because Brad Pitt's in it. I wasn't expecting much, but what I did get was a gritty intense work of art. This of course, turned about to be slightly more realistic than Inglorious Bastards, but grittier and darker. I suspect Mr. Ayers (I know nothing about him, nor do I care) is a generation Xer, like myself, who doesn't know a whole lot about War in general, or world war II, and that is fine. If you want to see a realistic depiction of the European campaign, Band of Brothers is all you need. I certainly don't want think anyone should strive to get to this level, because it would undoubtedly fail, yet I don't think that is what was intended here. This was a work of art, an action movie that seems to grab from the older war flicks of good ole fashioned American propaganda. It doesn't hide from that at all either. I think we all know nothing like this happened in World War II, and if you're looking for historically accurate depictions of World War II in movies, you shouldn't be. Movies are for entertainment, and I was thoroughly entertained by this one. I didn't want to stop watching. A gripping moment for me was the scene with the 2 girls, for some reason, it seemed like a bad trip; very thought provoking. I was constantly trying to guess what was going on in each characters minds while the scene played out and not too many movies accomplish this for me on this level. The fighting was not realistic of course. You don't just see tank artillery shoot through the air like lasers. Obviously this was done for dramatic purposes, while at first I was disappointed by this effect, it had its value. It put me in more of a feeling of actually being there, in its own distorted way, and set me up to set aside disbelief for the rest of the movie, for the sake of entertainment. Brad Pitt's character is interesting, although flawed at times in enunciating his accent consistently, he did speak some interesting quotes that were probably not spoken by soldiers during a time of war, but developed in hindsight by analysts of war, and for me it worked. The soldiers all acted to me, as this generation would in war. It also seemed to blend space and time and update world war II into the now. It touched on religion quite a bit, which is an interesting comparison to how the "God is on our side", or "this is god's work" mentality is achieved not only through ISIS in the present day, but can, has and will be achieved by Christianity as well. Yes, killing for God; To be clear, I'm not saying we weren't justified or at least, we can emotionally identify for all the acts our soldiers did, legal or illegal, in world war II.
This movie, even in all its unrealistic, pulls at the emotional depravity that occurs in war and brings you down to its level, through great intense scenes and acting.
I recommend giving it a watch, suspend disbelief of course, and think for yourself while watching.