Bullet Points: Alone We Fight
World War 2 movies are a dime a dozen. It seems like every time I turn Netflix or Amazon Prime on I find four new ones and two of them have Nazi zombies or werewolves in them. Alone We Fight is one that doesn’t have Nazi cryptids or alien Hitler in it but maybe those things would have enhanced my viewing experience just a little.
Synopsis: Facing mounting odds, a small but determined band of American soldiers venture into dangerous enemy territory on a mission to stop an advancing German unit from breaking through the Allied line.
- What is in a name: Alone We Fight was already in a losing position from the moment in hit play. How can you be alone and use the pronoun “we”? It seems like I might be digging too much into the title but it had me shaking my head before I ever saw the first bullet fly.
- Rangers: Speaking of bullets flying, the film opens with a team of Army Rangers being led deep into the woods by some Germans. It looks pretty clear that they don’t plan on letting them live. They slowly dig a grave big enough to bury a dead mouse in and then the Germans finally reveal their execution plans. Luckily for our guys, the Germans really suck at executing people and a few of them survive the event and make it back to friendly lines.
- Lady medics: I could be wrong on this (that rarely happens) but I don’t think there were female medics serving on the front lines like this during WW2. Lara Thomas Ducey and Kate Conway play two Army medic officers who play double duty as life-savers and possible love interests for our Ranger main characters.
- Don’t tell me, show me: For having “fight” in the title, this film has very little fighting in it. Most of the time it is Sgt. Falcone (Aidan Bristow) and Pvt. “Boston” O’Reilly (Matthew James McCarthy) talking about how bad things have been recently that give us our view of their experiences. Sure, they almost got offed by Nazis at the beginning of the film but their lives really aren’t any more in danger than the others hanging out in their camps. The talking about stuff instead of showing it is most likely due to the small budget but some of the best parts of the movie could have been greatly enhanced by having the right dialogue. Instead of the whole petrol station mission at the end (we’ll get to that), I would have just had the men run interference for the retreating aid station. Have Corbin Bernsen (we’ll get to that too) warn them about a particularly nefarious German sniper and you have set yourself up well for the duel to come. Instead, the men get a super brief rundown of some random gas station in the middle of nowhere that is supposed to turn the tide of the war.
- Corbin!: The man Corbin Bernsen plays a gruff Colonel who swoops in to let the folks in the aid station know that they need to move out. He okays the mission that the three remaining Rangers put forth and then disappears like a thief in the night. Sweet beard, though. I barely recognized him.
- Suicide mission: Falcone, Boston, and another guy who stood no chance of living all accept a mission to destroy a petrol station 1000 meters away from their position. That seems awful close to have stayed camped for so long and, may I ask, how in the hell has no one just dropped a few bombs on that bitch if they knew where it was? Regardless, the trio creep through the woods until they start getting enemy contact and before you know it you’ll be almost engaged in the film for the first time.
- Sniper fire and the petrol station: Having a scary story or two about a German sniper would have really elevated the puckered-asshole effect of watching the three men slip into the forest. Later, though, as the men start feeling the effects of their mission, we see a little more of the firepower of the Germans. There is decent battle between the two forces as the Rangers fight their way to the petrol station and then scoot their way back down the hill toward the aid station. Hopefully, the remaining folks at the aid station started packing that shit up because the last time we saw it they were chillin’ like they were at a 4th of July party.
The Verdict: My decision to watch Alone We Fight was made solely on the fact that my boy Johnny Messner was in it. I was super disappointed when he spends all of 40 seconds in the movie and he doesn’t kick one Nazi in the teeth. I enjoyed the way the men bounded away from the enemy as they retreated at the end but it would have taken a miracle to save the movie at that point for me. The uniforms were good, the acting wasn’t bad, and the film had potential with the location, but there was far too many chatty Kathy’s and not enough badass Army Rangers. Find a good Nazi werewolf movie instead.
