This is a nice piece of docu-drama, but a bit ordinary otherwise.
There's a place for this kind of film, I guess. It is, I assume, a pretty accurate telling of what went down in the Battle of Long Tan. It is full as with Australianisms, like "we're not here to fuck spiders" and other pieces of Aussie-dialogue that are being lost along the way. So it's nice, to hear those phrases on the big screen.
It's filled with Australian faces and you'll spend a lot of time thinking you know someone from somewhere, from some show, then feeling bad you can't more accurately pinpoint who this Aussie actor is. They are though, all a bit nondescript. I struggled a lot with telling the younger soldiers apart, and for most of the film, subsequently, had no idea who was in which squadron/group or what might be happening to who.
A real high point here, is the whole Aussie vibe. And I have no idea if this is related to being culturally closer, or if it really just is an Aussie thing. We might not have been there to "fuck spiders" but sure as hell we did all the usual *Aussies at war* ridiculousness. How we even have any semblance of a army is beyond me, with the level of order disobedience on display. Absolute valiantry*, absolute stupidity, absolute having a beer and accidentally shooting off your gun cause you're a bit tipsy.
There are some absolutely gorgeous slo-mo shell-dropping on the enemy scenes is this, some hyper visuals of guns being shot in the rain. Very pretty. There is a higher than usual number of weird flipping during explosions - not for this cast the sedate run and jump with fire billowing behind. Flip and tumble and limbs akimbo. I also particularly enjoyed the shirtless crew of kiwis manning the heavy artillery, quite gave me a dose of the ANZAC spirit.
Having said all that I never really got into any of the characters. It might be a good docu-drama, complete with the excellent face-snap of the real officers and the actors who played them at the end. But it's not exactly the most engaging war movie.
J* gives it 3 stars.
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j* Movie Reviews 2019
HumorSpoilery recounts? Hilarious reviews? Serious takes? Just want to know what one female film reviewer who likes action thinks about the latest release? My collection of reviews from the releases of 2019.
