Recon

It's Italy in WW2. Four American soldiers witness their Sergeant killing a seemingly innocent civilian. The group encounters an old man pulling a cart who tells them about a group of nearby German soldiers. As they head off to recon their enemy, they fight among themselves and grow suspicious of the old man. It's a small war indie and it remains a small war indie. The characters feel small. The actors are small. The production is small. It's all very small.

It looked like a decent film and decided to watch this first before checking the reviews here. Sometimes I don't want to be biased beforehand. But after loads of yapping and crying by 4 guys on a pointless mission I was starting to wonder if anything exciting was ever going to happen. Then I read the reviews and like one user said it's like the Blair Witch Project and he is absolutely correct. 10 star review from a one review account is par for the course now. Mostly this film is walk in the country and I'm sure not many viewers are going to be impressed by that. In short, the bad reviews are warranted, just a bad story to choose and bad directing and bad.... well you get the picture.

This is most definitely not a soldier's movie. It's a movie written by someone who creates an unbelievable world of war and soldiers and is directed and produced by people with too few funds and not a whole lot of understanding about film making.

It's a movie where a reconnaissance patrol always walks down the middle of roads or fields all the while talking loudly or shouting. Oh, and with lit cigarettes. Stealth was not their long suit.

It's a movie where young men in 1943 constantly swear and use phrases from 2019. Where a commanding officer orders that an unarmed civilian be shot and orders it in front of about 20 witnesses.

It's all simply unbelievable. And it's poorly made and made on the cheap.

I won't waste any more or your time. Just a friendly warning, don't view this thing no matter how desperate you are for something to do. It's that bad.

Supposedly based somewhat on true events, Recon is a basic, low budget take about 4 soldiers who having just completed a mentally scarring mission are promptly sent back out to perform recon and report on enemy movements among the snow - capped Italian mountains during World War 2. The overarching theme is of soldiers already struggling with the consequences and psychological toll of previous actions, being thrust into another compromising situation. The movie is Robert Port's (an Oscar winning short filmmaker) feature debut and he is clearly less invested in military minutiae and more interested in seeing where these characters go from the film's harrowing opening scene, which unfortunately is also better than anything that follows.

Port in my opinion, needed to spend a little more of the film's production budget on getting more accurate technical military advice. Because although the acting is of an acceptable standard, the reconnaissance soldiers we see depicted, just behave so incongruously, it's just too much of an ask, that we viewers are expected to believe in and sympathise with them.

I've only had limited military training and experience, but seriously. Soldiers behind enemy lines wandering haphazardly, shouting and arguing constantly amongst themselves, grouping together to make easy targets, not searching people they come across properly, especially considering the aforementioned opening scenes? Absolutely nothing rings true. I mean I literally wanted to reach through the screen and throttle Private Asch myself. He just never shut up and was seemingly oblivious to the fact that a noisy, careless soldier such as himself would likely attract enemy attention to either himself, or his fellow soldiers. Simply confounding all around!

Recon looks good, for a small scale production. It's just a pity that after a compelling opening stanza, bizarre narrative set - ups and script decisions make the finished film so ineffective in conveying its worthy themes concerning post traumatic stress disorders among front line military personnel.

As a veteran I can honestly say that I have never seen a group of more undisciplined soldiers in my life.. They're in enemy territory, and they are screaming at each other, fist fighting, and comducting themselves like they were at a HS foot ball game.

It's a wonder any of then made it out alive!

It was hard to watch. I wasted $7.99 on Direct TV to watch this violation of military norms