It is late on in WWII in the Ardennes and a small group of German soldiers must take and then defend a vital bridge, against overwhelming odds, and without adequate supplies.
I was idly half-watching this (on 'Movies4Men' channel, UK) and I suddenly realised that I recognised the locations somehow. It seems that the HQ sequences were filmed at Neldpath Castle, Scotland and the battle sequences were filmed at Longmoor Camp, Hampshire.
Longmoor camp has what is known as a 'FIBUA' (Fighting In Built-Up Areas) training village. This location (which includes a short length of railway line, presumably a remnant of the long-defunct Longmoor military railway, as seen in 'The Great St Trinians Train Robbery') was used for several purposes, being both where the soldiers prepare for action, and then a little later (confusingly for the viewer) find themselves fighting in.
The bridge itself is an authentic military bridge such as might be used as a replacement for one that has been blown up. It might not be period correct, but the thing that made me chuckle was that this 'vital artery' clearly hadn't had much traffic over it and furthermore it was bridging not a major river, but something that looked more like a small muddy puddle.
The battle sequences were apparently shot in the course of a single weekend, with the help of a re-enactment society called the 'second battle group'. They all had an enjoyable weekend, thought that various aspects of the film-making process were ridiculous, and put up with wearing plastic German helmets as best they could. The helmets don't really show up as plastic, but once you know....
The film was heavily dubbed and edited; there are many CGI'd special effects, including explosions, flames, aircraft, extra people etc. As you might expect, at this budget, the CGI'd bits do show.... The soundtrack is mostly OK but several of the main characters were dubbed by voice actors, in such a way as it was slightly distracting; the voices didn't match the actors very well and even though they are saying the same words, the sync isn't very good. I at first wondered if the actors were English-speaking or not, and was surprised to find they were.
The plot is somewhat thin, and doesn't really grab your attention. However the film is interspersed with 'fake propaganda newsreels' as shot by a small film crew who are attached (with some animosity) to the fighting unit. These newsreels turn every defeat into a victory, and cowards into heroes for propaganda purposes, being as the first casualty in war is the truth.
These newsreels mix real archive footage with regraded footage of the actors in the film. I thought these were well done, apart from the fact that the headers were all in English; I think that it would have been far more authentic-looking to have done them all in German and then to have subtitled them.
Mind you, that would have left twice the scope for spelling mistakes; as it is, they managed to spell Longmoor as 'Longmore' in the credits, so goodness knows what could have happened there...
Most films require 'suspension of disbelief'; this one a lot more than most. It didn't stop me from deriving some interest from watching it, though perhaps not for the intended reasons.
Considering this film was made with incredibly limited resources, I think it is OK. I give it six out of ten, but that is allowing for the budget and the fact that I have an interest in some of the locations. I can quite understand how others might give it a lower score.
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