Battle Ground

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Harry S Feb 7, 2019 A disappointing WW1 movie that doesn't really make you like or feel for any of the characters - especially the lead. It's grim but strangely unmoving. See more

Dec 10, 2018 I watched this just a few days after the far superior Journey's End and the contrast is pretty astounding, terribly acted and mostly boring and dumb, it felt more like a bad soap opera than a movie. None of the main actors were actually British or Irish so some of the accents were downright dodgy and weird, the dialogue was terrible, as was the delivery. One of the worse parts was it perpetuated the myth that a lowly lieutenant would be sending enlisted men over to die by themselves when it would have been the brigade commander telling him and his fellow officers to lead the charge armed with nothing but a pistol and baton. The pointless side story about his wife having an abortion and dying felt completely tacked on as well, I don't know if they were just trying to increase the drama soap opera style or if they were attempting to make some kind of comment on abortion but either way it was awful, not to mention the nurse that performs it just happens to be the girlfriend of one of the leads at the front, the chances of that are slim to nil, especially as the character in question didn't even attempt to hide his Australian accent. Overall a complete amateur flop of a movie. See more

Finn P Sep 2, 2018 A failed and amateurish movie in most respects with poor dialogue, acting and character portrayal. Much of the dialogue seemed forced and cliched. The theme of the movie was hard to pin down and seemed to be a mish-mash of anti-war boiler plate with overtones of xenophobia and anti-abortion sentiment (!?). I could be wrong about the last one but it was so badly done I couldn't tell. Luckily I saw it for free on SBS's streaming service but even so only just made it to the end. I found out it was an Australian film after seeing it am sorry to say our national low self esteem (see 'cultural cringe") would have meant I probably would have view it more sympathetically. We have produced some world class stuff but we Aussies, audience and movie makers alike, to often let ourselves down with a cliched view of our culture as being a bit low brow and unrefined. We can and have done much better than this b grade effort and I suspect Johan Earl can too. See more

Finn S Jan 29, 2018 Another "Saving Private Ryan" examination of the nitty-gritty physical horror of war. It does a good job of keeping us in touch with how bad battlefields, and battlefield trauma can be. The story is done well enough, quite respectable, actually. All but one of the characterizations are quite good. The Lieutenant is the only exception in that he is a caricature. However, history tells us that, in the all-in-all, that caricature is, overall, accurate. Anyone who has read "The Guns of August" - perhaps the best known and highly authoritative history of WW1 - knows that nationalist stupidity and class prejudices created much of the horror of WW1. The Lieutenant depicts one aspect of that class prejudice. I thought it was a good story, and an enjoyable movie. Not a great one, but definitely watchable and recommended from this corner. See more

Leia L Jan 25, 2018 Low budget film in which the early, effective battle scenes quickly fade into a very mundane film let down by it's rather stilted dialogue delivered in dodgy accents, cardboard cutout Germans and, on occasion woeful acting. The depiction of no man's land is actually very convincing and had the story just centred on the struggle in that arena it could have made for a half decent film (aforementioned faults notwithstanding ) about an aspect of WWI we haven't really seen, given that the overall subject has been done to death. Unfortunately, any dramatic tension is spoilt by the silly sub plot that results in a ludicrously implausible end. It's all something of a one man band with that one man being Johan Earl. I'm not convinced that he should really be behind the scenes and he certainly should be kept away from in front of the camera. Something of a lost opportunity. See more

Poe P Mar 13, 2017 Extremely poor production with unrealistic and pathetic scenes. An old cliché where German soldiers are portrayed as killers creating a twisted view of the war. A shallow simplification of a powerful subject that deserves a way more serious approach. See more

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Battle Ground

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