taylorsrout

Most war-genre indies suffer from low budget and a lot of them try to get around it by separating a couple of guys from a unit and giving them a gutsy mission. This usually means you end up with three guys in the woods prattling on for two hours.

This film - predictably - separates a few guys from their platoon, but it's a plot point, not a production necessity. Dialogue is riveting, story is excellent, pacing good, all in all a rare gem among a field of stones. Worth a watch.

Why I waited this long to watch this film I'll never know. Leo's first Oscar? Of course it's going to be brilliant. I wasn't disappointed.

One star knocked off for heavy-handed tropes pandering to native populations, but that's just to avoid giving it a 10, which no film deserves.

I love a good war flick so I tend to forgive budget issues, which this one clearly had. It suffers mostly from being the "three guys stuck in the wilderness" trope that lets the producers avoid expansive scenes they don't have the budget for, but, as those films tend to do, this one bogs down real quick.