Did anyone else like it as much as I did?

The basic idea is: During World War 1 two British soldiers are sent across no-man's land to find a battalion that is about to fall into a trap and deliver orders to stand down the attack. Sorry - no aliens flying around in capes, huge green men, love stories, or superheros LOL.

I studied this period of history extensively during college and beyond and I have to say the film is pretty darned accurate. The event takes place around the third Battle of Ypres, when the Germans did a strategic withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line to free up a large number of units for other purposes. The town Écoust-Saint-Mein is real, was among the war zone, abandoned by civilians, and razed to the ground as everything else in the region of withdrawal was in line with Germany's scorched earth policy to deny their enemies any resources and increase their burdens.

My only issues with the movie - no man's land could have been gorier but I understand why it was kept to the level it was, this isn't a horror movie. The other is everyone acting like 1,600 men about to get slaughtered is horrific. Of course it is, but the British suffered 60,000 casualties on the Battle of the Somme's first day alone. The whole Passchendaele campaign created some 500,000 casualties overall so there were many assaults that cost 1,600 men. I supposed if they'd made the number 16,000 the average movie viewer wouldn't have believed it so it makes sense.


Excellent movie, I highly recommend it if you like this sort of thing

The offensive at Passchendaele was launched on the 18th July 1917 with a bombardment of the German lines involving 3,000 guns. In the 10 days that followed, it is estimated that over 4¼ million shells were fired. Passchendaele before and after the battle