I watched it through to the end. That's something. Especially since, in the opening scene, American GIs are firing bolt-action rifles as though they were M-1 semi-automatics, never once working the bolt. As the movie shows, they HAD at least one old Garand on set, that they could have used in that scene accurately, but no. The script delivered a sprinkling of facts about the First Special Service Force, and then ladled on a ton of malarkey. I won't address the fact that the set looked the same no matter where anyone was supposed to be, thousands of miles apart, and others have rightly criticized defects in costuming, weaponry, etc. I'll only say that, when the main Nazi bad guy stands TWICE out in the open, once marvelously silhouetted by the skyline, at, for the military, very close range, and highly trained commandos can't hit him, with an aimed Garand, a BAR, even the supernaturally accurate submachine guns, while your random, unaimed snap shots are taking out Germans who are firing from cover, well ... There are other, more egregious crimes against history, good movie making, and the laws of physics in this movie, but we'll leave it at that. The closing scene, I can say without spoiling the movie, was particularly wrong headed. Having read three books about the FSSF, I can say that anyone with a smattering of that information could have crafted a screenplay better than what was served up, with the same guns, costumes, and characters, and made a decent movie out of it, since their ACTUAL exploits still rate as fantastic, without exaggeration, to this day.
Review of Battle Force
