Customer Reviews

American Soldiers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Under the suggestion of a filmmaker friend of mine, I thought I'd give this film a tumble.

What I found was a film depicting soldiers acting and talking unprofessionally, and discussing political screeds that front line soldiers never talk about, especially when under fire.

In fact the characters talk too much. They talk, talk, talk, talk, talk about crap no soldier in his right mind would ever talk about.

The acting was atrocious.

A combat medic complaining about being a medic? I was a combat medic, and that just never happens.

It had occasional good action scenes, but over all it was really a horrible film.

Guys like Furie should leave the writing and making of modern war films to guys who have either actually served in that conflict or at least done some serious "real" research about soldiers and modern warfare and the conflict they are writing about.

Man, I miss guys like John Ford.

Blood and guts and smouldering, dismembered body parts. Not really my type of entertainment. I hired it before reading the comments of my fellow Amazon critics. Based on fact, it was probably a realistic account of 24 hours in the life of American soldiers in Iraq. Absolute hell by the look of it. The acting was a bit mediocre but it did show what these poor boys have to go through. Nevertheless, I wouldn't watch it again.

Amongst a small but vocal section of our wonderful society, only two depictions of US soldiers suffice, cruel or dumb-(misled dumb or just plain dumb). American Soldiers refreshingly avoids these stereotypes and portrays soldiers as complicated moral agents in a complicated situation. AS is the third quality small-budget, DVD-only war movie I've seen in a row. The story involves a squad of American soldiers plus one or two friendly Iraqi policemen experiencing one single hellish day. The day starts off with an ambush followed by an IED, then what seems to be a conglomeration of iraq war headlines-car bombings, torture, everything. It's kind of like Black Hawk Down, but I didn't notice the resemblance until just now. Some of the dialogue is near cringe-inducing, involving war ruminations and summations of the points of view of which you've no doubt grown sick. American Soldiers held my interest throughout and passed the normal-person test as Patti thouroughly enjoyed it. The movie contains one of the best endings in a war movie, and the producers were definately advised well as all of the props, military terms, and situations were spot-on. American Soldiers gets a bonus star for being the only normal Iraq war movie available, as far as I know.

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This film is loosely based on actual events stemming from April 2004, the costliest month of US casualties since the declaration of the end of hostilities in Iraq. It follows a squad of US Army soldiers as they fend off ambush on top of ambush in the tradition of "Back Hawk Down". Surprisingly this low budget Canadian production takes an almost John Wayne approach, emphasising heroism and commraderie. The cast of virtual unknowns form an unexpected cohesiveness, that this reviewer hopes is instilled in every American infantry unit. The contradictions are there. Why are we in Iraq? We need to be there! Was it worth loosing all those lives? Are we appreciated by those we have liberated? What have we accomplished? On and on. The film is very episodic and has annoying breaks inbetween scenes. Those who want a bangem up, shootem up movie will surely be satisfied. Director, Sidney Furie has done his best to make the interplay between the troopers seem realistic. The squad always after quick debate reluctantly does the right thing. The attitude is we're Americans and we're not like them! There are a couple conventional subplots that I don't want to give away and spoil it! WWII, Korea, and ofcourse Vietnam have all had movies made like this. Why shouldn't Gulf War II?

Right down to the wounded Tom Sizemore tough-guy sergeant character, the downed helicopter rescue mission, etc. Iraq instead of Mogadishu. Get the real movie, and skip this ersatz cartoon ripoff.

I liked the movie because of the non-robotic soldiers who have a conscious, thus the story. The movie does seem to take cinematic license to the number of attacks and lack of support, but it does not distract from the storyline. Do the soldiers always follow what they have been taught -- no, but that's actually reality. I've had to yell at my own soldiers during combat to get them to focus. Well worth a viewing and not the same old action flick.

Wow, the acting was unconvincing, the dialogue was terrible, and the plot was ridiculous. Even if you were desperate for entertainment I wouldn't recommend this movie. Why bother to argue about the message of the movie when the movie itself was so poorly executed. Watch "Generation Kill" instead. It at least has some real soldiers playing soldiers and giving direction/assistance.

just horrible. did not know middle east had the same vegetation of canada? That is the "good" problem. Acting, directing, and stupidity are the real problems. "so if the shi* goes down so be it" and "No buts thats and order" such realism and awesome dialogue!

Also what a title. That must have taken years!

No life or commen sense in this crap of a movie. I hate war movies that have no life. Sorry guys but it bothers people when their friends and fellow soldiers are hurt or killed. They have a job to do but to go on with the trying to be witty FRIENDS, the tv show, style comments just falls less than flat.

Do not rent or see this. just hit your head on wall for a few hours and you will be better off. "so why they mad we here?" " because nobody likes to be occupied because it is like living with your parents" ACADEMY AWARD FOR WRITING HERE WE COME!

the films action sequences are good but thats pretty much all the it has going for it. Based on the war in Iraq, it follows a team of US Soldiers into battle against the terrorists. Its a rent first movie.

Director Sidney Furie is best known for his work on the Ipcress file. He is back 40 years later with a minimalist masterpiece. I have read the reviews here and elsewhere and they focus their hostility on the fact that the movie was made in Canada with Canadian actors. Canada is the background for perhaps 10% of US films and I have not seen such hostility bruited about these other productions. Perhaps the reviewers thought only Americans could make a movie about Iraq. What strikes me is that Americans have not made a movie about Iraq. It fell to a foreign country to make such a movie and this foreign country made a movie suprisingly flattering to the US.

The film is shot in a Cassavetes-style docu-drama format. American Soldiers follows a platoon's one day patrol in militia infested Baghdad. There is no fat in this movie. Just facts. One has the feel that the movie-makers eschewed commercialism and did their homework in trying to figure out what is really happening in the battle between Americans and Baghdadis. It is not a movie that will please Americans as it shows what an awful, wasterful, meaningless, bloody struggle they have got themselves into, but if one can look past these global aspects of the movie one sees a picture of young Americans brought up on the internet and I-pods coming to terms with brutal realities and making a good show of it.

By staying spare, and avoiding drama the movie is, in my view, perhaps one of the best depictions of the realities of combat.