Search - The Fallen on DVD

Very ambtious indy film

Jeffery E. Blascyk | Somewhere in Kansas | 04/03/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"the Fallen is a film I never thought could be made, a WW 2 independent film. A small budget period war movie? Exactly, but this one had high hopes and was very ambitious without trying to be an action driven film. The problems with this film wasn't the production or the look of the film. The Idea was pretty cool, a story told from three different perspectives. One told from the Germans, one told from the American side and one told from the Italian side, and you can add another side which was the Italians that fought on the side of the Germans.

I liked the concept and how the actors spoke in their native tongue. All these things would have worked better if the characters were a bit more fleshed out. In any war film you know someone is going to get shot, blown up before it's all said and done. When you don't really care or feel connected to any of the characters than your really not going to get the full war movie experience. The story was paced slow with brief moments of action which I'm sure had to do with the small budget. With a war film you really want it hardcore, gritty, and real; this one was none of the above. Nothing real resonated in this film and you knew you were watching a film and actors the entire time.

There were some nice shots and directing, the uniforms and setting was spot on for the Italian countryside and everything looked like it came from that era. The film makers did a wonderful job in that aspect. The movie was trying to say something and give all the sides but didn't focus enough on the real meat of any of these stories for me to get emotional invested in this film. It's a nice film for a small independent feature and did well at some film festivals. Looking at this on a broader scale it just won't hold up to many, many other well made war films. I salute the director for his ambitious attempt at something different, i wish i would have like it more."