When Trumpets Fade (1998)

One can always tell a reviewer that has never been in combat.They start talking about the bigger meaning of war.They complain about the lack of intelligent dialog.There is rarely any intelligent dialog in war let alone any real meaning to it insofar as the infantryman is concerned. Unless of course you are one of the nine out of ten people in theater that hide behind the wire in the bunkers or wherever.War is most often fought by children, hence their name: the infantry.What the geniuses in Hollywood or NY or DC do not understand is well described by this flick.The theme of this movie is the battle of the children, the infantry.It's a very well done movie from that perspective.This movie details with brutal efficiency what combat was like in WW II.It also details why we as a nation should have never given up on the draft.We are a nation of cowards now.

A film that over reaches itself in ambition despite having a good Director, John "Hamburger Hill" Irven at the helm, and a good story to work with, the battle of Hurtgen Forest which preceded the Battle of the Bulge. However two obstacles become insurmountable, a puny budget, and a terrible script.Made in 1998, it attempts to be gritty and realistic, but the dialogue does not feel contemporary, and the action sequences are unconvincing with close up gore shots used to try to compensate. The battle scenes cannot match Saving Private Ryan, nor the epic sweep of The Thin Red Line. Irven is simply not good enough to reprise Kubrick's success with similar limitations in Full Metal Jacket.Ultimately the film does not go anywhere. The frailties of men in battle, once shown, dull after a while. The failings in US Command strategy are only hinted at. Combine a fuzzy story and bad dialogue and you have a formula for creating characters which are half formed and unlikeable, which is what we have here.When you make a film fifty years after the event it really needs to say something, to shed some light on a hitherto unilluminated corner – this does neither.

This was more of a drama/entertainment film than a credible account of anything that did or could have happened. The acting was nothing special, and in fact a little disappointing, and definitely detracted from the story. It also focuses mostly on two characters throughout, which, even in other movies is generally avoided, as more characters are at least more developed even in supporting roles where they are not in this movie. However, it was well filmed with decent picture and sound editing. The sets were also fairly well designed and the costumes and props were good too. The end was also disappointing and somewhat abrupt. The original footage was a nice touch, though. There were some inconsistencies but nothing major. Hurtgen forest campaign was no picnic. I was there. Saw my buddies all torn up. Darn them krauts.

in the movie when trumpets fade it talks about one mans story and how fears coming over him trying to get his new unit to come with to the Germany lines and how he gos up the ranks but starts to fall apart near the end because he knowing that doing this pushes would cause a kill for the us troops mannings know what he has to do but cant not do it because deads is coming for the us troops but after going though so many different battles he figures that he will do this job and at least try to live and get though what he has to do order to live from the Germany forces i think it was a great movies because it show all different thins about how to try to live thoughts very bad times and how a Lt. can fell like he is going to break but get ups the cougar and dos keeps his mission and dos what he has to do for the man that he is protesting