One of the problems with war movies is that they tend to attract reviews from military anoraks, all of whom have biases in favour of one or other army/force/grouping. "Yeah, the SAS would make mincemeat of them", or "they wouldn't last three minutes against the Navy Seals", or whatever. Scroll through the reviews of this movie and you'll find similar here. A certain amount of realism is important, but just how realistic were "great" war movies of the past, particularly the British war movies from WWII?
In reality, very few western soldiers ever fire a shot in anger, so in point of fact, stories like this, where peacetime soldiers are thrust into an actual firefight carry their own realism. Some here have argued the unlikelihood of a five day fire fight where hundreds of the enemy are killed and none of the defenders. Yet, that IS exactly what happened at Jadotville, with estimates of enemy losses ranging from three hundred to one thousand. The broad sweep of the story is true.
With that in mind, the only question is, is the action believable? The answer is, yes, it is. It's amazingly well done on what must have been a tiny (by Hollywood standards) budget. Commandant (Major) Quinlan leads a small troop of Irish UN peacekeepers holding a small outpost in Katanga. After the UN forces assault the Katangan rebels under the orders of Connor Cruise O'Brien (Mark Strong), the UN leader on the ground, the mercenary forces retaliate by attacking the isolated Jadotville outpost. There follows a five day siege in which the Irish defend their position to the last bullet while being left unenforced and unsupplied by their superiors.
The machinations of the UN are well covered, and the oily Connor Cruise O'Brien -- a real person who is not fondly remembered in Ireland -- is portrayed well by Mark Strong, who is a better actor than he is often given credit for, although I would have liked a little more on what happened after Commandant Quinlan arrived home and he had to put up with the insinuations of career soldiers who had never heard a gunshot. Ignore the begrudgers. This may not be a great movie, but it is a good one telling a more or less true but almost forgotten story.
In reality, very few western soldiers ever fire a shot in anger, so in point of fact, stories like this, where peacetime soldiers are thrust into an actual firefight carry their own realism. Some here have argued the unlikelihood of a five day fire fight where hundreds of the enemy are killed and none of the defenders. Yet, that IS exactly what happened at Jadotville, with estimates of enemy losses ranging from three hundred to one thousand. The broad sweep of the story is true.
With that in mind, the only question is, is the action believable? The answer is, yes, it is. It's amazingly well done on what must have been a tiny (by Hollywood standards) budget. Commandant (Major) Quinlan leads a small troop of Irish UN peacekeepers holding a small outpost in Katanga. After the UN forces assault the Katangan rebels under the orders of Connor Cruise O'Brien (Mark Strong), the UN leader on the ground, the mercenary forces retaliate by attacking the isolated Jadotville outpost. There follows a five day siege in which the Irish defend their position to the last bullet while being left unenforced and unsupplied by their superiors.
The machinations of the UN are well covered, and the oily Connor Cruise O'Brien -- a real person who is not fondly remembered in Ireland -- is portrayed well by Mark Strong, who is a better actor than he is often given credit for, although I would have liked a little more on what happened after Commandant Quinlan arrived home and he had to put up with the insinuations of career soldiers who had never heard a gunshot. Ignore the begrudgers. This may not be a great movie, but it is a good one telling a more or less true but almost forgotten story.