Fort McCoy (2014)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Powerful

A Masterpiece!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Kate Connor wrote and directed this affectionate and loving memoir of her family and the time they spent in Wisconsin at a place called Fort McCoy. Actually Camp McCoy, but I'll not quibble.Clan patriarch Eric Stoltz comes to the camp to be a barber for the GIs, he's got a heart murmur and is a 4-F. The same thing knocked with malaria knocked Errol Flynn out of war service. It grates on him constantly, both in looking at the kids going overseas and those coming back dead and alive. Even the Germans and Japanese who were captured get a bit of envy for their service.But wives and daughters also serve and the daughters form their own attachments to the soldiers, individually and collectively. Which brings me to the most poignant part of Fort McCoy. Young Gara Lonning entering puberty herself notices for the first time someone of the opposite sex. He happens to be Josh Zabel playing Heinrich who is a POW all of about 13 or so.There's a famous newsreel film of Hitler giving a pep talk to some Hitler youth now impressed into service for the Fatherland. By 1944 I'm sure many were dead and many prisoners of war. The little innocent attraction of Zabel and Lonning will wet the eyes and the ultimate tragedy reduce you to tears.Fort McCoy is a tale poignantly told and really should be seen to learn about how loss of innocence is too big a price for war.

I really hoped this was going to be a good movie but was really disappointed and surprised at just how bad it was, Stolz's acting was about the only good thing in the movie. His anguish over not being able to serve his country was believable but his co-stars (Connor) acting was just ridiculous and over the top. The US Army fort seemed more like a Boy Scout Camp with no discipline, security or any military bearing whatsoever. Whoever made this movie had no idea of what the military is like. There were so many things going on, its like the creator of this mess wanted to cram all their statements and beliefs in one movie with none actually being explored in depth. The topic of POW's in the USA during WW2 could have been explored with this film nicely yet the picture we were given is silly and very inaccurate. I have family who were around the German POW's in Opelika AL in WW2 and according to them, this movie is junk and I have to agree.

Overall I'm a bit disappointed. I thought this would be an interesting period piece, and I'm a fan of (looking at) Lyndsy Fonseca, who I think is the most beautiful actress out there. While watching this film I kept having to remind myself that it was filmed 5 years ago. Perhaps during this time, Lyndsy Fonseca has gotten a ton of experience from filming Nikita, Kick Ass, etc. and took lots of acting classes. Honestly I thought her acting was stiff and basically poor in this. The beginning scenes were especially tough to watch. Getting past that, Eric Stoltz carried the film and delivered a believable performance. I think the supporting cast let him down. Also I wish they had developed some of the story lines of these characters a little bit better. I will say I think the kids in the film did a good job. I was looking forward to seeing the depiction of a US POW camp. After seeing the film, I question their depiction of the prison camp. The real Fort McCoy was/is huge. There were 4000+ POW's there. From this film, you'd think it was a small place where everyone knew each other. The budget probably made it necessary to slim things down quite a bit.

The setup: Stoltz moves with his family to become a barber for the American army's POW camp at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, in the summer of 1944. Embittered that he cannot fight, he must take a stand when a Nazi officer threatens his wife.The verdict: It's an important film. It will either surprise or disappoint you, depending on what your expectations are. Stoltz proves he's still got some ham in the old acting can. Acting is all-around good. The first 30 minutes are is a lot of fun and rather cleverly made. My only problem with the film was the supporting cast. 7 out of 10.