Based on Actual Events?

Rating: 5/10 (2 October 2017)

I'm not one of those who get my history from films (or think I know a book because I saw the film it's based on) but if you're going to put such a tagline at the beginning of a film make sure there's some semblance of truth to it. Fiction from the beginning: 101st Airborne were not at the Malmedy Massacre, did not take place in the massacre and pretty much, in my opinion, insults the mainly 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion who were. There are little nitpicks, of course, but that's huge. It's like the film U- 571 saying it was the American Navy who got the first Enigma machine when that was total fiction when in fact the HMS Bulldog of Britain's Royal Navy got the first one in 1941, and the US Navy only got one and that was in 1944 well after the British had already cracked the code.
That's the biggest problem with American films such as these: they always have to be the heroes but not just the heroes: the first heroes, the ultimate heroes etc., everyone else pales in comparison (I'm American, by the by). There's a difference between being patriotic and just claiming patriotism that was never there to begin with.
The only evidential events in this is the battles and places they mention; everything else is speculation and fiction for other purposes. Which is fine but be honest about it, at least. According to the commentary of the film on what actually is true are insignificant things (two guys of the same religion on different sides -- so what? It's like all Nazis were atheists, or something? -- a German POW made his food look like an angel: again: like all Nazis or Waffen-SS etc., were atheists? -- some US soldiers hid under a floor while Germans ate above them. So what? You know how many Jews during the war did that?) This film sure isn't about the Malmedy Massacre because that's that's over in the first five minutes. So, what is this film about? Four (or five) guys try to get to Allied lines without getting captured by the Germans. No. It's not about that. Oh, they got some intelligence by a British pilot they run into and must get that to the allies! No. Not about that, either. So what is it about? It's about the Mormon church (LDS) promoting Mormonism. That's what it's about.
Now while it's finely thinned, not directly mentioned it is there and mainly with the main character who carries around his Book of Mormon (not the OT/NT Bible) and attempts to vainly convert another of the four who keeps pushing him away until the very end when he takes it from him at last. No more being a godless heathen atheist but now sees the light and becomes a Mormon, per sé. I'm sure that's the ultimate message.
Eh, as an overall film: it wasn't that bad but it gets, at least from me, major points taken away by not displaying the actual battalion because, I feel, that does a disservice to those who not only died but also survived.