The Lost Battalion (2001)

The Lost Battalion of WW I. The original battle this film is based on, which produced no less than seven Medals of Honor and numerous Distinguished Service Crosses, took place in the Argonne Forest in France during the waning months of WW I. It was part of the final great Allied push known as the Meuse- Argonne Offensive (Sept-Nov 1918). The Battalion was cut off for nearly a week, from the evening of 2 October until early morning 8 October, when elements of the 77th Division AEF were able to break through German lines to the south of the battalions position and relieve and reinforce their position.The battalion itself, actually a combination of three battalions (six companies of the 308th, one from 307th, and two companies from 306th MGB) entered the Argonne with nearly 600 able-bodied men on the 2nd, and left with less than 200 unscathed on the 8th. The atrocities they endured and the heroism exhibited is self-evident, without the need of embellishment, which is precisely what this film does.It may be somewhat unfair to bash this film universally, which is why I gave it a rating of three stars rather than one. The cinematography was excellent and the acting was good if not great. I'm not certain if I would have cast Rick Schroder as Major Wittlesey, a result of trying to garner a larger audience through name recognition rather than on the merit of subject alone. Unnecessary and a mistake in my opinion. I also understand this is a made for TV film, lacking a big budget and aimed at smaller audiences. But the flaws in this film aren't budget related. They are a direct result of historical inaccuracies and bad dialogue.While the individual soldiers involved and timeline seem to be fairly accurate to what I've read, the writers have taken a great deal of liberty in mixing up certain events and the players involved. "Major" Prinz was presumably a Lieutenant for one, and it was a wounded private who was captured and returned (reluctantly) to Major Wittlesey with a request of surrender, not Lt. Leak. The plane shot down was a two-seat De Haveland DH-4 biplane with a pilot and navigator, each awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, not a single-seat with only a pilot. Might sound nit-picky, but these guys are heroes and major inaccuracies like these do them an injustice, in my opinion.Plus, the six-seven day nightmare seemed to take place over only a day or two in the film. Bad editing may be the culprit, although it is possible the script was light to begin with. I imagine it's pretty tough to condense all that the battle entailed into a hour and thirty minute movie, but it can be done. Perhaps throttling back on some of the campy dialogue may have provided the time for a more accurate portrayal. You get the sense that the film is trying to shove honor, moral courage and heroism down your throat by telling you how heroic everyone is over and over and over, rather than just demonstrating it and allowing you to form your own opinion.If you have absolutely no knowledge of the battle, have no interest in historical accuracy, and are looking to kill an hour and a half of your time you may find the film enjoyable. The cinematography was great, acting fair even good in parts, but the end result is a skewed portrayal of the actual events that took place and cheapens the memories of those involved.3/10

At last the story of Major Charles Whittlesey finally was told on screen in a fine production from the History Channel. Fresh from his stint on NYPD Blue, Rick Schroder gives a fine performance as the caring major who leads his battalion into a horrendous situation behind enemy lines. Along with what Sergeant Alvin York did, Whittlesey's Lost Batallion was one of the great stories to come out of World War I.On October 2, 1918 who could have known the war that had stalemated for four years in the trenches on the Western Front was a little more than a month away from the finish. At least that was the view for the dough-boy in those trenches. The leaders of the various countries were negotiating for an armistice. But rumors of armistice had been circulating in the trenches for years.Whittlesey's Lost Batallion was part of the general offensive in the Argonne Forest and his command advanced way ahead of the rest of the army. Like the soldiers at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in the next World War, his battalion became surrounded by the German Army and held out for four days. They even had to endure a rash of friendly fire from our side. You're just as dead if you're hit by that. When it was all over the battalion had about 200 men left from the 500 that started.Rick Schroder does a fine job in essaying the role of Whittlesey who in civilian life was a lawyer. It's touched on slightly, but Whittlesey's politics were fairly left wing, but unlike a lot of the people on the left who opposed the war, he enlisted and received a commission.The experience in the war and those four days when he had the responsibility of holding his men together, scarred his very psyche. He went back to practicing law and with a really prestigious Wall Street firm, but was constantly in demand for various patriotic type events which didn't sit well with him. In 1921 he went missing from a ferry boat and his body never recovered. That part of the Whittlesey story was not told in this film and is open to a lot of speculation.Still the story of The Lost Batallion is as ingrained in the American Experience as The Alamo or Pearl Harbor. And we should thank the History Channel for finally being the ones to do the film that tells the story.

well first of all who ever said that uniforms weren't accurate wow! you are a genius!! they can't be correct, it is a chargeable offense. impersonating military officer!!!! so the movie can never be 100% because who remembers what exactly is said and done in battle? and people standing up during fire...it looks like squad rushes to me which is still used in todays military so you really are an uneducated person. the movie is as accurate as law allows it to be. i believe it was a pretty good movie, the actors did a decent job, there are some inaccuracies ( a private yells at a captain, that would not happen in almost any situation, at least not in the us armed forces) and they did take a little dramatic liberties with conversations and personalities but overall it is a good movie and gives a good picture of the military abilities during WWI

After watching this movie I was honestly disappointed - not because of the actors, story or directing - I was disappointed by this film advertisements.The trailers were suggesting that the battalion "have chosen the third way out" other than surrender or die (Polish infos were even misguiding that they had the choice between being killed by own artillery or German guns, they even translated the title wrong as "misplaced battalion"). This have tickled the right spot and I bought the movie.The disappointment started when I realized that the third way is to just sit down and count dead bodies followed by sitting down and counting dead bodies... Then I began to think "hey, this story can't be that simple... I bet this clever officer will find some cunning way to save what left of his troops". Well, he didn't, they were just sitting and waiting for something to happen. And so was I.The story was based on real events of World War I, so the writers couldn't make much use of their imagination, but even thought I found this movie really unchallenging and even a little bit boring. And as I wrote in the first place - it isn't fault of actors, writers or director - their marketing people have raised my expectations high above the level that this movie could cope with.