1968 Tunnel Rats
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | 1968 Tunnel Rats |
| Original title | 1968 Tunnel Rats |
| Country of production | Germany , Canada |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Uwe Boll |
| script | Uwe Boll, Dan Clarke |
| production | Uwe Boll, Dan Clarke, Chris Roland , Shawn Williamson |
| music | Jessica de Rooij |
| camera | Mathias Neumann |
| cut | Karen Porter |
| occupation | |
| |
1968 Tunnel Rats (alternative title: Tunnel Rats , Tunnel Rats - Descent into Hell ) is a German-Canadian war film by Uwe Boll . The feature film, shot in 2008, is one of Boll's more ambitious works and describes the tunnel war in Củ Chi, Vietnam .
action
A new team lands in the Củ Chi area to support the local reaction forces, known as tunnel rats , under the direction of Sergeant Vic Hollowborn in tunnel combat. As soon as they arrive, the tough, relentless sergeant tells them that tomorrow will be the first tunnel. Then he has a Viet Cong executed. Garraty is very upset about this and challenges Hollowborn to a boxing match , which he loses. In the meantime, the other soldiers pass the time with sleight of hand, talk and dreams of burger stalls or coming home.
The next morning it goes to the tunnel. Two soldiers are killed by Viet Congs as soon as they get in. The men can recover the bodies and wait for support. When entering again Porterson is buried. Johnson reaches another exit and is killed there by the Viet Cong Vo Mai with a bamboo spear. She crawls into another tunnel, where one of her children is already waiting for her with a new order slip. As a result of her act, she vomited in the cave.
Then it goes very quickly: The reinforcements are fired at, a few of the men can escape into the tunnels, where they too quickly come to an end. Parts of the tunnels are mined, others are flooded and the soldiers drown. Graybridge manages to break into Tran Huy's headquarters and wipe out part of the group. A dying Viet Cong shows him the exit from the tunnel labyrinth. This is how he comes to the surface. Meanwhile, the Viet Cong attack the American base. With the last of his strength, Hollowborn can order an air strike. Graybridge and another soldier witness the bombing of the base and die in the flames.
A US soldier arrives at Vo Mai. The two are buried when the airstrike begins. They desperately try to get to the surface together, but both suffocate when the air in the tunnel room runs out.
Background information
Uwe Boll first became aware of the film's subject when Dan Clarke (producer) reported on the tunnel fighting during the Vietnam War while filming The King's Swords . Boll did some research and then wrote a screenplay called 1968 Tunnel Rats . Instead of completely working out the characters and dialogues, he left it up to the cast to bring their own characters to life. The actors were prepared for their roles in a boot camp . The film was shot mainly in Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal .
Reviews
Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid gave the film 3 stars out of 4. "If Boll had made this film in 1986, he might have won an Oscar and become the next Oliver Stone !" ("Had Boll made the film in 1986, he might have won an Oscar and become the new Oliver Stone!)" Bill Gibron of Filmcritic.com gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5 and called it very good
While the US reception was mixed (Rottentomatoes evaluated three reviews, two of which were not positive), the film was rated quite negatively by the German-language film critics, mainly because of its improvised dialogues and the lack of tension.
“With '1968 Tunnel Rats', Uwe Boll joins the list of great directors such as Oliver Stone ( Platoon ), Michael Cimino ( Those Going Through Hell ), Stanley Kubrick ( Full Metal Jacket ) and of course Francis Ford Coppola ( Apocalypse Now ), all of whom also made a Vietnam film. However, the latter also form a more exclusive club because they actually had something to say about the Vietnam War. And here it says for Boll: 'Unfortunately I have to stay outside!' After all, in '1968 Tunnel Rats' not only the Viet Cong tunnels are underground. "
"At times it was quite oppressive, but towards the end the violence got out of hand."
Award
- For the three films 1968 Tunnel Rats , Swords of the King - Dungeon Siege and Postal , Boll was "awarded" the negative Golden Raspberry award in the worst director category.
- Hoboken International Film Festival (2008): Best Supporting Actress for Jane Le
Web links
- 1968 Tunnel Rats in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Audio commentary on the German language release of the film
- ↑ Jeffery Anderson: Tunnel Rats (2008) . Retrieved May 26, 2013.
- ↑ Bill Gibron: Tunnel Rats . Archived from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
- ↑ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1206483-tunnel_rats/
- ↑ Dennis Harvey: Review: '1968 Tunnel Rats'. (No longer available online.) Variety .com, archived from the original on November 8, 2010 ; Retrieved May 3, 2015 .
- ↑ Review on Filmreporter.de. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 25, 2009 ; Retrieved September 26, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Christoph Petersen: Review on Filmstarts.de. Retrieved September 26, 2009 .
- ↑ Cinema.de: film review , accessed on March 17, 2010
- ↑ - ( Memento of January 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Razzie Awards: Nominees for Worst Director
