What a Great Story

Rating: 7/10 (6 August 2005)

If you want a great *Story* check this movie out.
To me the the most appealing feature of a strong historical film is the Story within the Great Story that is the historical setting: in this case, WWII. The Story of the Raid, the Love Story (I very much agree, Nielsen is excellent!), the Comradeship Stories both within the Camp and within the Raiding party, are to me painted vividly and appealingly. The weaving of these Stories leading up to that last action-packed half hour ... the Raid Story Proper ... worked well for me. I mean, from the very beginning, we know there's going to be a Raid, and it's a helluva thing to anticipate. And here we are building up to it and building up to it through these interwoven Stories ... and by the time the Raid itself blazes onto the screen, I think both my emotions and my anxiety had been plowed and sown and grown to an acute point that plain old blew me away when It Finally Happened.
On a different note: I very much liked the cinematography. The colors, ranging from dry browns to burnished golds to field grays to dull greens, were to me very, very evocative, and gave the whole movie a flavor that fit the Stories very well indeed. Something especially about some of those scenes that were colored somewhere between those old time brown-and-white photos and modern tints and colors ... well, they were to me just wonderful. The device of starting the movie with B&W and closing it with B&W is sort of an old device now, but works very well indeed for me.
One more thing: I very much like the emotions of this movie. WWII movies following Saving Private Ryan seem to echo some of the early post-war flicks in combining lots of Action with lots of Emotion of a very basic sort: Horror (at Atrocity), Anger, Comeraderie, Love (of Man & Woman), Patriotism, Hope, Fear, Anxiety, Anticipation, Excitement, Longing ... especially Longing for Doing Things that Matter. These are the kinds of feelings I expect to find in good Stories within Great Stories of War and History. If you do as well, check out this movie: you won't be disappointed.