How are the battle scenes?
Are they any good cuz no matter how good a movie is a lot of the war movies screw up in the battle section.
shareBattle scenes are large scale and brutal on par with SPR and BHD (but larger cos some of the scenes involve thousands of people), served with plenty of gore, explosions, dirt, shooting, grenades, blood, relentlessly depicted throughout a variety of environments.
The battle scenes are compared to SPR often and rightly so, they definely share many characteristics, however don't expect to see SPR-style realistic combat - there is way too much one-man-army stuff going on, and the main characters seem to have the ability to shrug off a rifle butt blow to the face as if they'd just stubbed their toe.
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I may be a tiny chimney-sweep but I've got an enormous brush.
Compared to big budget Hollywood movies, it seems a bit fake with the endurance/stamina of the main characters (like their ability to sustain several hits without flinching much), but considering the budget they had to work with (I heard about $12 million, which is low budget in Hollywood, SPR had a budget of $70 million if you want to compare), it's surprisingly well done.
There were lots of melee fighting (which I suppose is cheaper to film, as you have infinite punches so long as you have your arms and hands attached, compared to how many times you can shoot, plus it looks cooler when there's lots of guys fighting hand to hand), which is probably a good depiction of the Korean war battles (The south was pretty poorly trained, and usually got steam-rolled by the North Koreans and Chinese initially, as did the UN forces early on too).
Korea is also a very mountainous region, so almost every fight was on a hill, as shown in the movie. It also meant they had to often get as close as possible to the enemy before engaging them so that they could maintain an element of surprise, and so their guys don't get shot up trying to run uphill (which is always bad for attackers).
The brutality of both sides can be seen often too, but obviously it's most evident in the brother Jin-tae, who clearly begins to lose his humanity as the film progresses. For instance, the North Koreans set an explosive trap for the South Koreans in a village they abandon, which injures and kills many South Korean soldiers. In retaliation, when the South Koreans reach the next town with North Koreans, they kill every communist they see on sight, without regard to their pleas for mercy (and in one particularly disturbing scene, Jin-Tae throws a North Korean soldier very close to a burning building, and then puts his foot by the soldiers neck, ensuring he burns to death).
The battle scenes are compared to SPR often and rightly so, they definely share many characteristics, however don't expect to see SPR-style realistic combat - there is way too much one-man-army stuff going on
You need to read up on some of the exploits of US Medal of Honor winners. Many of them involve an individual holding off a vastly superior forces on their own.
I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.
www.werepissedoff.net share