alex-flach Having served this film is often too painful to watch (the reason for my giving it a 9/10). It expresses the suffering and comradeship of warfare. This isn't just a film it's an education for a society disassociated from war. For those critics war isn't glorious or romantic. It's dirty and boring, and yes, people screw up. If you're stuck in a minefield without all the Gucci kit it's a bayonet and you're belt buckle, and it's hot and tiring and you make mistakes. Soldiers (at least the Toms) don't speak received English (so maybe you might have to pay more attention to what is being said)and yes they swear, live with it! There are plenty of wonderful war films where the (usually American) protagonists win the day with either a fashionable injury or glorious death; this isn't one of them. There is however humour and pathos in war and this expressed in loads. If everyone knew what war was really like nobody would want anything to do with one.

gcarpiceci-73268 The film is definitely very, very realistic; and that is what makes it very, very boring. With all respect for the real victims of that action, I am still bound to review a movie, and the paradox is that the movie pays a big price to hyper-realism; essentially, you see three men jumping on three mines on a goat track at the bottom of a valley in Afghanistan, and you then spend a hour and half watching them suffer, bleed, scream. The camera indulges very often in very realistic and crude close up of truncated legs, arms, fingers and various injuries. The reality of the action must have been absolutely dramatic, and the courage of some of the soldiers remarkable; unfortunately, this does not make a good movie.

tnfitzgerald_1985 I've never seen a movie capture what it is to be a soldier better. British, American or whatever. Watch this - it's history not a film.There have been many films made about Afghanistan/Iraq over the last few years and they are all afforded a degree of Hollywood Licencing. The Hurt Locker being an excellent example, almost good but ruined by pandering to a less intelligent audience.If I was asked to describe what being a soldier is I could only ever point to this film. There is nothing there that is overdone or underdone. It just is what it is meant to be.

James Smith Knowing the story beforehand I was curious to see how the makers of this film could come up with a well rounded movie.Unfortunately, they didn't. After a very short introduction to the main characters, all with strong British accents which even I had trouble understanding (British born Australian), we are taken to the minefield. Yes I jumped a couple of times, but then found there was no pace. There was too much unedited conversation and no action or tension.It is a shame that the film makers didn't provide more background, showing how tough you have to be, to be a British Paratrooper, and some of the previous actions they had been involved in leading up to the mines. This would have probably conveyed more the futility of being killed or wounded by Russian mines planted many years earlier. Just showing realistic portrayals of mine strikes does not a great movie make.