The production values are excellent and the attention to detail amazing. They came up with all of the standard rifles and pistols, but also heavy weapons like artillery. The amazing part is when they showed a rare French Chauchat Light Machine Gun ("a piece of garbage") and a German Flammenwerfer M.16 flamethrower.
The story is about a battalion that was a part of an Allied offensive in the waning days of WWI (the war ended a few weeks later). Filming was done in the Argonne, which made it that much more authentic. Real Germans played all of the speaking German roles.
The US battalion was led by Major Charles Whittlesey (Rick Schroder), a New York lawyer. The battalion was a part of a larger offensive, with the French on one side and two American units on the other. The Argonne is a heavily forested area, so visibility is limited to a couple of hundred yards. Fighting was very heavy from the get-go, but the battalion broke thru the German front lines and began pushing rearward. Communication was extremely limited, constrained to runners and, yes, carrier pigeons! The battalion became surrounded by German forces without any reinforcement or supplies beyond what they carried with them during the first day push. Whittlesey rejected a German demand that they surrender delivered by a captured soldier. This one area where they took a minor artistic license: the 18 year old enlisted soldier actually captured was changed to an officer so he could have an invented dialog with a German commander. US soldiers had little ammunition left and no food. Their only water source was a nearby stream that exposed them to German fire to get to. They had to reuse bandages used on dead soldiers.
The situation, already dire, got worse: the battalion was shelled by their own allies by mistake. In a desperate effort to stop the bombarding Whittlesey dispatched a carrier pigeon to get the shelling stopped. The Germans spotted the bird and began shooting at it, wounding the bird. But, incredibly, the pigeon made it back anyway, and the shelling was stopped. Now, you've got to think that this was all made up for dramatic purposes, but you would be wrong: this astonishing event did occur. The bird ended up becoming a national hero. The pigeon, Cher Ami, was awarded the Croix de Guerre Medal and was later inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1931.
Major efforts were made by the battalion's parent division, the 77th Division. The 308th infantry alone lost 766 men in this effort, more men than were in the Lost Division. This part of the battle was ignored in the movie, which made it seem like there was little effort expended to rescue the Lost Division. Finally, these efforts were successful and the Lost Division was rescued. Only 194 men walked out of the 500 that began the battle, the rest were dead, wounded or missing.
Seven Congressional Medal of Honor Awards were awarded to men of the Lost Battalion, one of which went to Charles Whittlesey. He returned to the US after the war a hero. He resumed his career as a lawyer, but was constantly besieged with public appearance requests. This attention was too much for the man and he committed suicide by jumping overboard on a trip to Cuba. The movie made no mention of this.
This is one compelling story that most of us (including me) are unaware of since it happened over a hundred years ago. The movie does a commendable job of accurately portraying the events of this battle with minor historical inaccuracies. I highly recommend this movie.
The story is about a battalion that was a part of an Allied offensive in the waning days of WWI (the war ended a few weeks later). Filming was done in the Argonne, which made it that much more authentic. Real Germans played all of the speaking German roles.
The US battalion was led by Major Charles Whittlesey (Rick Schroder), a New York lawyer. The battalion was a part of a larger offensive, with the French on one side and two American units on the other. The Argonne is a heavily forested area, so visibility is limited to a couple of hundred yards. Fighting was very heavy from the get-go, but the battalion broke thru the German front lines and began pushing rearward. Communication was extremely limited, constrained to runners and, yes, carrier pigeons! The battalion became surrounded by German forces without any reinforcement or supplies beyond what they carried with them during the first day push. Whittlesey rejected a German demand that they surrender delivered by a captured soldier. This one area where they took a minor artistic license: the 18 year old enlisted soldier actually captured was changed to an officer so he could have an invented dialog with a German commander. US soldiers had little ammunition left and no food. Their only water source was a nearby stream that exposed them to German fire to get to. They had to reuse bandages used on dead soldiers.
The situation, already dire, got worse: the battalion was shelled by their own allies by mistake. In a desperate effort to stop the bombarding Whittlesey dispatched a carrier pigeon to get the shelling stopped. The Germans spotted the bird and began shooting at it, wounding the bird. But, incredibly, the pigeon made it back anyway, and the shelling was stopped. Now, you've got to think that this was all made up for dramatic purposes, but you would be wrong: this astonishing event did occur. The bird ended up becoming a national hero. The pigeon, Cher Ami, was awarded the Croix de Guerre Medal and was later inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1931.
Major efforts were made by the battalion's parent division, the 77th Division. The 308th infantry alone lost 766 men in this effort, more men than were in the Lost Division. This part of the battle was ignored in the movie, which made it seem like there was little effort expended to rescue the Lost Division. Finally, these efforts were successful and the Lost Division was rescued. Only 194 men walked out of the 500 that began the battle, the rest were dead, wounded or missing.
Seven Congressional Medal of Honor Awards were awarded to men of the Lost Battalion, one of which went to Charles Whittlesey. He returned to the US after the war a hero. He resumed his career as a lawyer, but was constantly besieged with public appearance requests. This attention was too much for the man and he committed suicide by jumping overboard on a trip to Cuba. The movie made no mention of this.
This is one compelling story that most of us (including me) are unaware of since it happened over a hundred years ago. The movie does a commendable job of accurately portraying the events of this battle with minor historical inaccuracies. I highly recommend this movie.