American Soldiers - A Day in Iraq
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | American Soldiers - A Day in Iraq |
| Original title | American Soldiers |
| Country of production | Canada |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2006 |
| length | 98-103 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sidney J. Furie |
| script | Greg Mellott |
| production |
Curtis Petersen Sidney J. Furie |
| music | Varouje |
| camera | Paul Begin |
| cut | Eduardo Martinez |
| occupation | |
| |
American Soldiers - A Day in Iraq (original title American Soldiers , cross-reference American Marines - The Elite Unit ) is a Canadian war film directed by Sidney J. Furie from 2006.
action
In April 2004, a platoon of young and inexperienced American soldiers set off for the Iraq war . As the vanguard, you are supposed to protect a fuel convoy and set off with a Humvee and an M35 truck. They are expected because they are under fire during a routine patrol on a bridge. Since the allied units are under heavy fire and thus cannot move in for reinforcement, the inexperienced young men are on their own. As Sergeant Delvecchio, the group leader, was injured in the abdominal region in the attack, the second sergeant of the group of 15 men took the lead. The soldiers decide to take Sergeant Delvecchio to a nearby Iraqi hospital, although a non-existent order could result in severe disciplinary consequences for the unit.
When they arrived at the hospital, the soldiers immediately recognized that members of the militia were already disguised as patients in the hospital. After a brief firefight in the hospital, the doctor there can operate on Delvecchio and stabilize him for the upcoming transport. On the way from the hospital to the base, the soldiers are repeatedly attacked by the militia and finally have to stop because their Humvee is shot down by an RPG shooter . The second sergeant then orders that the soldiers with the injured Delvecchio retreat to an abandoned warehouse. Its condition has worsened again due to the fighting and the transport. The paramedic believes that only another surgical procedure can save the sergeant. He knows the procedure from theory, but struggles with whether he is able to perform it himself. His comrades influence him and he actually manages to stabilize the sergeant temporarily. While he is still busy with its supply, new calamities are approaching, as units of the militia form in front of the hall. When two vehicles of the Iraqi police line up between the militia and the hall to come to the aid of the soldiers, they dare to break out with their truck and support the police with massive shelling of the enemy. The lieutenant in charge of the Iraqi policemen suggests that if there is no alternative to his police station, they should get through to regroup. After repeated attacks, they reach the station without further losses.
Again Delvecchio has to be supplied and stabilized, while the militia repeatedly attacks the area. Suddenly it is shaken by a detonation: the militia has brought a grenade launcher mounted on a pick-up into position and opened fire with the heavy weapon. The soldiers immediately take the sergeant to another room on the opposite side of the building and then fight the grenade launcher squad, which then withdraws. After another attack on the gate post, to which Iraqi police officers again fell victim, the precinct was again fired at with the grenade launcher and preferred the room in which the soldiers and Delvecchio are now. After you can fend off this attack together as well as possible, which ends with the destruction of the pick-up by the M203 grenade launcher by the M16 rifle of a soldier, the specialist of the squad determines that one of the police officers is always shortly before telephoned the attacks and was never in the same room as the soldiers. After he is already on the phone again, the specialist points his weapon at him, whereupon the latter also draws his weapon and demands that the specialist put down his weapon. A soldier from the squad has meanwhile pointed his machine gun at the policeman to protect his specialist. The implied question is answered by the policeman by fleeing the precinct.
After a brief skirmish, the traitor is shot by the lieutenant in front of the station, who expresses his dismay at the incident to the specialist. An RPG shooter aiming at them just misses the duo. Paralyzed by the detonation, it is impossible for them to stop the kidnapping of the lieutenant by three members of the militia. However, the specialist intervenes and shoots the kidnappers with his Beretta 92 without injuring the lieutenant. Together with this he then withdraws back into the building.
Groups of armed men circle the precinct again. The hope of those trapped is rescue by helicopter. The men are informed via radio by their captain that they have to break out of the police station and reach an agreed landing point in order to be evacuated by a rescue helicopter. After the soldiers were able to fend off another attack, this time not only with hand weapons, but also with a truck that was converted into a bomb using gasoline and explosives, which was heading for the precinct and was to be detonated there, they made themselves with the help of a An escort consisting of two Iraqi police cars set off for the landing point. Once there, the soldiers learned after some time via radio that the helicopter had been shot down and that they should make their way to the crash site in order to secure it and rescue survivors. All day long they have to defend themselves against continuous attacks under extreme conditions. A transport with prisoners of war is hit by a bomb. All prisoners die in the process. Torn between duty and feeling, men must now find a way to escape this hell alive. Ultimately, Delvecchio sacrifices himself to save the lives of his comrades. "We have done what has to be done, we are soldiers, that is our job," says Sergeant Taylor Jackson with tears in his eyes after those who are left are safe.
Production, publication
The film was produced by the Peace Arch Entertainment Group. Most of the film was shot in Hamilton in the province of Ontario in Canada . The music in the film is from Varouje.
The film was released on DVD in Brazil in 2005 and in Hungary, Sweden, the United States and Greece in 2006. It was also published in Australia, Bulgaria, Italy, the Philippines, Poland, Russia and Spain. In Germany it was published on October 5, 2006 under the title American Soldiers - A Day in Iraq with a German soundtrack on DVD, provider: MIB - Medienvertrieb in Buchholz. On January 31, 2012 the film was released under the title American Marines - Die Elite Einheit with a German soundtrack on DVD and Blu-ray, published by Delta Music & Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG.
criticism
The lexicon of international films writes that the routinely staged war film offers “no popular figures, so that interest in the effectively staged combat operations” quickly fades. Furthermore, it is said that the "lack of criticism of the US operation will be made up for by a rather patriotic tongue".
On the Dutch side of Cinemagazine , Frank vd Ven remarked with sarcasm that these American war films teach us a lot more about the world. The Iraqis attacking our Uncle Sam heroes seem to be all sweaty, unshaven men. The American Soldiers immerse us in a world made up of uncompromising extremes. There are only the “good guys” and the “bad guys”. During the entire season there was a commercial for the army. Director Sidney J. Furie would like to let us know with all his might that the soldiers are courageous and honorable heroes. The terrorists, on the other hand, are nameless figures, a horde of wild men walking around wearing masks and veils and rocket launchers. American Soldiers offer a painfully one-sided look at something as terrible as war. The narrow-minded Western experience of the second Gulf War, the Fury follows, produces a sick film. This is not a true story, but a colored piece of historical falsification. The acting is also bad because the actors act without emotion. All characters are interchangeable and do not have their own identity.
David Cornelius of DVD talk said the film was more awkward and boring than it should have been. We'd see a parade of clichéd war movie characters eager to return to their base. Furie and Mellott would try their best to find an equivalent to the American war film Black Hawk Down , what with the grainy, dusty camera images and the dizzying, woodcut-like music by Varouje Hagopian and the somber homage to those who fell in real life But soldiers fail. Cheap action-drama replace honest emotions, drama and tension. Cornelius, too, was of the opinion that the characters were interchangeable and one-dimensional, the plot implausible, the dialogues ridiculous. Conclusion: The film is as harmless as it is mindless.
Eye for Film's Iain Macleod even said American Soldiers was the most annoying thing he'd seen in a long time, and that he saw a lot of crap. With this film, he was probably at the end of the Holy Grail of dung. American Soldiers is completely crazy, a bullshit without borders, a film that is naive on so many levels, not just in political terms.
The German film site SofaHelden was also unable to find American Soldiers . This is a "C-film" as it is "in the book". The actors are “as bad as they can be replaced”. The story itself is "extremely drawn by the hair" and therefore becomes "very quickly irrelevant". The film quickly degenerates into “a farce”, so that one loses interest.
Web links
- American Soldiers - A Day in Iraq in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- American Soldiers - A Day in Iraq full film in German
Individual evidence
- ↑ American Soldiers - A Day in Iraq Ill. DVD case
- ↑ American Marines - The Elite Unit Fig. DVD case ("It started as a routine operation and ended as a fight for survival")
- ↑ American Soldiers - A Day in Iraq. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Frank vd Ven: American Soldiers (2005) see cinemagazine.nl (Dutch). Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ↑ David Cornelius: American Soldiers see dvdtalk.com (English). Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ^ Iain Mcleod: American Soldiers see eyeforfilm.co.uk (English). Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ↑ American Soldier - A day in Iraq see sofahelden.com (including picture gallery). Retrieved March 5, 2019.
