Finally a nice war movie made by Hollywood after a long period of time. Very realistic presentation of war and what's in it. No propaganda on WWII which is a Hollywood must on regular basis and nothing to blur original idea of the director. Let's start with WWII: one of the seldom American films that shows in real light the war events on the western front. Even when heavy crippled, outnumbered and almost defeated after five years of war against the whole world, Germany was still like the wounded tiger when American army landed in Europe- mortally dangerous. Unmotivated and scared American soldiers on one side versus toughest military professionals that World had seen for many hundred years before that. Film develops very cleverly that main character is exactly like that - not bad or selfish, but rather completely unmotivated for that war - and he was the best soldier they got. 350.000 dead US soldiers for just 11 months of American participation in WWII since landing in Normandy are US casualties. The film is pretty well describing how that happened. Movie is even better depiction of the war itself, its nature, cruelty and rotten chain of command, showing that the bravest are not always the heroes, and the heroes are not always brave. Also, war doesn't make people you want to be, but kills all the people you would like to survive, by that ruining every movie pattern made by the most of the Hollywood war epic masters. What I didn't like about this film is the music which completely failed. Such a potential ridiculously ruined by some tones that look like editing experiment rather than edited film. Also, I have to mention some of the WWII history gaffs: there is no single American plane in the film, even though every battle in it happened during the good weather. Also, even though the battles are pretty realistic, sometimes we can see German soldiers walking with their machine guns in the middle of the battle on very short distance which is absolutely ridiculous even for the artillery crew in German army. All in all, this is a war movie to be recommended.
Review of When Trumpets Fade
