Company K
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Movie Reviews of Company K
Movie Review: Company K
Summary: 4 Stars
For some reason I have developed an interest in WW1 and have started a collection. If you have an interest in WW1 this movie will give you an idea what trench warfare must of been like.Movie Review: Here's the "Straight Dope"
Summary: 3 Stars
This somber film is an earnest attempt to portray what it really felt like to be a U.S. Marine putting your life on the line in the closing days of the Great War. I would give "Company K" a B- mainly due to the obviously sincere effort by the production staff to create an original work, and not just another slavish Steven Spielberg homage like A&E's "Lost Battalion." This movie stayed true to the spirit of William March's novel, and the script is delightfully full of 1918 slang like "it's the straight dope." (Although a Marine would never say he's in "the army," as several do in the film!)
Unfortunately, it's quite obvious that the "jack" (money) wasn't plentiful: most of the actors look and sound like they were recruited from a community theater production of "South Pacific," and the battle scenes feature a couple dozen extras at the most. As a result, the filmed version of some of March's best scenes--religious imagery on the battlefield and a soldier who continues his narration after he's been killed--are likely to reduce the viewer to embarrassed chuckles. Overall, a fine effort but a missed opportunity: with a larger budget "Company K" could have been a modern classic.
Movie Review: Company K
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie fails on every level.
First, because of the low budget they were unable to hire enough extras, build/rent enough period military equipment and, most importantly, recreate WWI battlefield scenes with even a modicum of realism. The trenches are too clean and too obviously fresh to be authentic. You don't see any of the litter or wear and tear you see in any frontline position after it has been occupied for even a few days.
Second, the acting is terrible, like they hired a bunch of guys from a community theater. The reaction of the young, Ivy League-educated officer to the deaths of his men caused by a stupid order on his part was one of the more egregious bad acting moments. And there weren't any good ones.
Third, much of what happens is unrealistic. The company portrayed in this film is the most incompetent bunch I've ever seen on film. A scene in which two guys are walking through the German-infested woods just chatting away left me dumbfounded (at least they had their rifles at the ready). There are many other such incidents in the film where you see inadvertent examples of incompetence (i.e., the director did not realize he was crafting a scene in which the actors are doing things that either simply would not have happened or, if they did, would have been so far outside the norm that it would require some explanation). You have to wonder if ANYONE connected with making this film had ever served in the military.
Fourth, and most damaging, the movie gets many basic details wrong. The highest ranking sergeant in the company, who would probably be at least a gunnery sergeant, is only a sergeant (i.e., three stripes/chevrons) and is grossly overweight for a WWI-era senior Marine NCO. (Perhaps due to a rapid expansion of the USMC with the onset of war? We don't know and it isn't explained.) The Marines at several points refer to themselves as soldiers, which no Marine would ever do.
And finally, in one of the most important scenes of the movie, a letter to a fallen Marine's family telling the truth about his death is thrown into the fire but we see on the letterhead "United States Army." Now how do you get that wrong? These kinds of basic and easily avoidable mistakes destroyed the movie's credibility.
If you are anti-war and on the left side of the political spectrum at least this movie shares your ideology but it's no Platoon or All Quiet on the Western Front. Compare Company K to Band of Brothers, which has a roughly similar format, and you can see what Company K could have been if it had been in competent hands.
Movie Review: Pass on this one....
Summary: 1 Stars
The best I can say about this film is that it is quite simply awful. It displays the American Great War soldier as a cold blooded psychopath, idiot blue-blood, cruel southerner, well you get the idea. The characters are cliched monsters that only a "hate America first" mind could generate.
Atrocities occur in all wars but to depict the Yanks as universally deranged and emotionally depraved is nothing less than propaganda.
A badly written screenplay magnified by a level of production that strives to reach mediocrity. Pass it up.
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