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 enlarge | Director: John Irvin
Actors: Ron Eldard, Zak Orth, Frank Whaley, Dylan Bruno, Devon Gummersall
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $4.50
You Save: $5.48 (55%)
New (21) Used (23) Collectible (1) from $2.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  115 reviews
Sales Rank: 6323
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 92
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Pan & Scan
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.6 x 0.6
MPN: D91480D
ISBN: 6305161941
UPC: 026359148026
EAN: 9786305161943
ASIN: 6305161941
Theatrical Release Date: June 27, 1998
Release Date: November 10, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Customer Reviews:
The Dark Battle November 10, 2006
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
The Hurtgen Forrest was probably the only stupid battle plan to come out of the ETO. There were other dumb plans, but this is the only stupid one. The history around the battle is worth reading up on before watching the movie.
The movie is well cast, well acted and reasonably well filmed. The direction is good in all places, outstanding in others.
Watch it and remember- they weren't fighting for Mom and apple pie- they were fighting for the guys in the trenches next to them, and to try, maybe succeed, to do an unwanted job.
Not Bad If.. October 24, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
You can either watch this movie while flipping through your manual of authentic WWII gear and tactics to find the flaws -
Or you can imagine yourself as a very young man with 6 weeks of basic training shipped to Europe to face a still very deadly Nazi army.
This movie will get under your skin. And yes, give me three days of front line experience, hand me a flame thrower of any kind (fire hose or not) and tell me to destroy an artillery position and it is entirely realistic to assume that I will scream like an idiot and possibly wet myself in the process.
The first person point of view delivered by the script and cameras went way beyond most big screen war epics to bring me into the cold, damp fear of comabt.
If you're a WWII film buff - you know you're going to watch it. Just try to park the "wheel chair general" mentalilty and you'll come out alright.
Then tell me that the veteran German NCO leading the patrol in your front doesn't make you want to run home to mamma.
If you want the typical GI Joe genre - watch the old 40's and 50's war films. This picture has some good points to make. The bloody dog tags smeared on a Major's breast by a shocked American Lieutenant is worth the price of admission.
 Instantly one of my favorites. October 22, 2006
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
Even though this is pre Saving Private Ryan, this movie holds it's own. It's probably one of the best, if not the best modern WWII movie out there. The story, acting and directing are great, and the attention to detail is superb. I thought I was jaded when it comes to the gore factor, but some of the scences actually made my jaw drop. It makes people aware of the carnage for the battle of Hurtgen forest, which is mostly over-looked, due to the Battle of the Buldge.
I was plesantly surprised when I saw Ron Eldard (Black Hawk Down) in the leading roll. He does a great job portraying his character, as the other actors.
As a WW2 buff, i've watch most modern World War II movies, but suprisingly I have never heard of this one before. I'm just glad Amazon recommended it when I purchased "The Lost Battalion".
HARD, GRITTY WW2 MASTERPIECE! August 23, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Released by HBO in the shadow of "SAVING PVTE RYAN" circa 1998, this tough, moody portrait of weary American soldiers assaulting the opaque Hurtegen forest, which straddled the Siegfried line on the German border in late 1944, pulls no punches in documenting the harsh, often hopeless reality of an army up against the proverbial 'brick wall"!! There are no "Tom Hanks" style heroes ala "RYAN" here, just hard bitten, war sick G.I.'s, whose harsh cynicism cannot mask the terror filled, often brutal situations they must wade knee deep in! The Gothic decor provides for a very realistic backdrop & the bitter irony that the oncoming battle of the bulge would overshadow this campaign!! A stunner!!!
reminds me of Hell is for Heroes August 1, 2006
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
The key for me in a combat flick is reality. historical accuracy, no cliches, avoidance of sentimentality and romanticizations. In the last few years flicks like Enemy at the Gates, Stalingrad, and especially Terence Malick's Thin Red Line do the best. When Trumpets Fade is smaller in its ambitions, production values and scope. But as such it hangs in there with these other achievements except for having a kind of epic scale. The relationships in the screenplay are more believeable than Enemy at the Gates -no romantic sub-plot- have no cultural obscurities for an American viewer -no societal war guilt to overcome like Stalingrad- and except for one brief scene there is no interplay of spirituality that one finds in Thin Red Line though that element is what makes Thin Red Line so resonant and soul shaking. When Trumpets Fade is brisk, direct, hugely existential, and as fatalistic as the other films mentioned here. The special effects are somewhat modest but fully appropriate and not lame in any way and with the exception of a few shots of the enemy tanks it all plays quite authentically. The main lapse in effectiveness is the opening of the film that is a kind of pastiche on a documentary. This is done to set up the historical context of the film's story. This 'educational' bit could have been pulled off better with a different choice of narrator. This film tells a harrowing story that condemns its protagonists to almost certain death or severe wounds, provides them with objectives that can not be reasonably achieved, and thus shows how unvalorous, how unexalted, how simply miserable, sadistic, and emotionally excruciating war is for soldiers. It really doesn't attempt tp glorify American patriotism that is the downfall of other recent large scale productions but actually beautifully shows the extreme pathos enacted between fellows in, as the characters of the film say, "the death factory." This is actually accomplished in the amazing opening sequence of the screenplay and mirrored less successfully in the denoument. In the end the subject is really the randomness of fate, the perseverence of the human will to live -and to die- when faced with complete lack of control over circumstances, and, with quite some poignance, the love of fellows for one another when faced with their unavoidable mortality. The historical battle depicted is a great subject for having been relegated to quite some obscurity in the annals of World War II history. And the producers, director, cast and crew rise to the opportunity to exercise their considerable skills with very little if any of the middle class sentiment that is the downfall of similar flicks that pander to audiences. It is a film making aesthetic that reflects some of the values that went in to a very few films from an earlier era, made much closer in time to the historical event they depict, and so chastened with a sense of reality not glossed over by a false need to be uplifting. Like Hell is for Heroes.
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