The Lost Battalion (2001)

Simply A Masterpiece

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I first watched "The Lost Battalion" in the early 2000s and had remembered it as being an excellent World War I film. After a recent viewing, however, I came to discover that this movie has not aged very well at all.For a basic plot summary, "Lost Battalion" tells the story of Major Charles Whittlesey (Rick Schroder), who finds his WWI battalion trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest of France, 1918, during the first World War. Despite being lied to by his commanding officers and under constant German pressure, Whittlesey must find a way to keep his men together and hold their ground until reinforcements can arrive.There are three easily-identifiable problems with "Lost Battalion" that prevent it from being a true cinematic classic:The first is just sheer production value. It was pretty good for A&E 20 years ago, but it has very much of a low-budget feel now. Perhaps if it were to be converted to Blu Ray that would help. I know that it can't help the time in which it was made, but because the characters aren't all that great (see below), it really has nothing else to stand on except visuals.Secondly, it really tries to copy "Saving Private Ryan" in terms of that battle scenes. Once again, I get it...that was the "thing to do" for war films of that era, but there's a reason "Ryan" lives on while others fade away. It's because that was a great all-around movie. Too many people just remember the Omaha Beach scenes and forget that it truly was a cinematic masterpiece. "Lost Battalion" needed to take a different direction to distinguish itself.Finally, the major problem with this film is that it doesn't spend nearly enough time (or any time, really), delving into character development or "bigger concept" issues. It is content to just kind of walk through the key events and only pay lip service to some great opportunities, like Schroder's character, the diversity of the platoon, and the potentially corruption of the upper military brass. All those concepts "get a look", so to speak, but only "a look". Nothing to really make you think or feel invested in the proceedings.Simply put, "The Lost Battalion" is very much a paint-by-numbers war action flick. It contains very little real drama...only relying on the tried and true "brutality of combat" trope to pull it through. In a post-"Private Ryan" cinematic environment, however, combined with low production values, that just isn't going to cut it anymore. I won't quite drop it down to a bottom- feeding 1 star, but I would give it 1.5 stars if able. It's a product of its times and very little else.

1) I am not weapon expert, but even i can see difference between U.S. army riffles in WWI and WWII. In movie we can see privates, armed with "M1 Garand" (invented in year 1932!), not authentic "1903 Springfield" (aka "Silent Death"), who privates use until WWII. Difference - M1 can load 1,5 times more ammunition and 3 times more fire rate! M1 was semi - automatic, Springfield requires reloading after every shot. Little difference?! 2) German army uniforms has borrowed from 1940 Year too. Especially - helmets. German helmets until end of WWI have significant pike on top, we cannot see even one in movie. And if we make little additional search in archives - how much truthful is this "True Story"? I am surprised, how much "truthful" can be film directors in a pursuit of cheap propagation.

I will not comment on the facts or omissions or what actually happened versus what was portrayed. My comment is on the direction of the movie. The director appears to have learned his tricks of trade through reruns of "saving private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers". Where the camera work on those productions is superb and groundbreaking through the use of the first person perspective and excellent angles, in this production it feels contrite and jittery at best and gimmicky at worst. Wardrobe - obviously - took great pains to recreate the uniforms and equipment to great accuracy but the special effects department let down the whole visual experience with the acrobatic tumbles of the soldiers and the thriller style stunt work. The Ardenne shelling in "Band of Brothers" was nerve shattering and brought the terrible ordeal of the soldiers to the viewer in a way that is memorable. The attempt to recreate that effect here completely misses the mark.I'm afraid that the overall experience has not been pleasant and I kept wishing the director would stop trying to impress us and just tell the story.

I know nothing about what the combat soldier goes through, I was in the USAF as a mechanic on the flightline, I served in Vietnam, I have had the joys of being rocketed, heavily, frequently, that is as close as I got to war.I feel the realities of a combat soldier and the efforts of the officers to lead them, even in the face of tremendous odds, was well illustrated in this movie. War is not a nice little game of checkers. It is about dying and doing things you would not do in any moment of sanity.This movie exemplified my view of what these men, and today some of the women go through. It is not about medals and parades, it is about leadership, and doing what you must, it isn't about choice, if it were, we would all speak German, Russian or Japanese, or be learning farsi or arabic, because any sane person would have fled and the enemy would have won. Thank god, they stood their ground, for without them, freedom and choice would have died out long ago.For those who have a problem with the US and their efforts at any time in the last 100 years, had we not been willing to die for freedom, ours and yours, you would not be here now. The US is the only reason their is any examples of freedom left in the world today. Many within my country are willing to pull the US down, to vilify them and prostate them selves before those who seek our end. Well, my only comment is, you will miss us when we are gone.Evan