This movie took place around the time of the Battle of the Bulge – in late 1944. Maybe because digital video is so sanitized, it doesn't look real. Finally, even the filming outdoors in Bulgaria with the snow on the ground didn't look real. In scenes with several Germans firing on them, we only occasionally see one of the Americans being hit, while they take out scores of Germans. Not only did the GIs have unlimited bullets in all their Tommy guns, but they mowed down the Germans by the dozens. The movie had the "feel" of a video game throughout. The only time we see men carrying rifles – which most of the enlisted men in an infantry unit would have, is in the early part of the film, with the snipers. Indeed, they never seem to run out of bullets. But never do we see anyone changing an empty magazine. They had to be peeling off scores of rounds. We see several of the GIs firing the submachine guns repeatedly. None appeared to have cylinder magazines, so they would have had 20-round or 30-round box magazines. But that was so unreal from two standpoints. As I said, the film did have lots of action. The aircraft used were all computer generated, and aerial CGI never looks real to me – or to other viewers I know. They didn't smudge the tank or change its appearance from scene to scene. Wherever we saw anti-aircraft guns, it was the same shiny, brand-new looking phony prop. It didn't look like a weapon that had been in combat for three or four years. But the anti-aircraft gun looked shiny and freshly painted. They made one wooden model German anti-aircraft gun and moved it from place to place to represent many such guns. They duplicated it in several shots to give the impression of a column of tanks. For instance, they got a Russian tank that closely resembled a German Tiger tank. Some of the production people and cast described the lengths they went to for authentic props. I watched the bonus video on making of the movie. The one thing it has is a big serving of action. The plot for this movie comes from a video game. Or maybe, one should question the ability of modern filmmaking to proximate historical things with any semblance of reality. But the finished product makes one wonder how serious an effort they made. The producers of "Company of Heroes" tried to make a World War II film.
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