I'll tell you why so serious

good back-story, and good acting

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This got a lot of hype when it received its very limited release . The publicity material heavily emphasised writer/director Tom Petch served in the British army for more than eight years which is eight years longer than I served . The publicity was rather reluctant to go in to details and I don't want to sound disrespectful but Mr Petch left the army in 1997 , four years before the war on terror started . Mr Petch was a civilian when the British army entered Helmand province in 2005 and it shows . If nothing else it goes to show than former ex British military can make a dreadful war drama as badly as any British civilian peacenik The success of a war film is to bring a sense of time and place to the audience . The story is set during a British operation in Helmand in 2006 but on nearly every level the entire narrative feels like it's taking place in Vietnam in the early 1970s . Petch claims he made this film to show the lack of proper equipment and of a clear mandate British forces found themselves with in Afghanistan but is badly executed you'd think the director has an agenda somewhere As for the equipment .50 calibre machine guns constantly jam and the reason is put down to bad ammo . Not impossible I guess . I'll give the director the benefit of the doubt even if it happens a bit too often . Likewise radios not working . Apparently though the ire of Petch goes mainly towards the SA80 rifle " If it's supposed to be so good " whines one squaddie " Why don't the SAS use it ? " So if the SAS don't use a certain weapon it must be rubbish ? Not sure if that's good yardstick to judge something with " But who else uses the SA80 ? " whines Mr Whiny 40 years ago all the world's armies were split between using three assault rifles , the M-16 , the FN Fal and the AK47 . Since then nearly every country due to reasons of chauvinism has produced its own assault weapon with the British using the SA80 which is almost universally adored by everyone who uses it in the British Army and is considered better than the American M-4 carbine . Mr Whiny is obviously an obtuse contrarianWhat this makes more problematic for the film is that it ties in with a bigger picture mainly one of characterisation . A British military patrol pushes in to Taliban territory in 2006 within a couple of days morale has collapsed in to near mutiny . Seriously ? From what I've read and heard second hand from squaddies a posting to Helmand in 2006 was a dream posting . Young men join the army to fight and since 1960 no one has been forced to join the British Army . Constant tours to the 'Stan might have taken a toll on the military but this wouldn't have been the case in 2006 . Nor would morale have collapsed to the extent where soldiers constantly disobey mission orders as seen here . What makes it even worse from a logic and drama point of view is the time-frame along with a distinct lack of inciting incident and motive . I don't want to sound like a cheer leader for the Ministry Of Defence but if I had served in Afghanistan I'd feel very insulted by this film and I wouldn't be surprised if some of Mr Petch's erstwhile military colleagues are arranging a firing squad for him as I write this

I suppose if your experience is limited to veteran level on Call of Duty or Michael Bay films then this probably isn't your cup of tea.I saw this film in Brighton recently, and was very impressed given the limited budget. Combat is 98% boredom and 2% sheer terror, and this film didn't try to make out that war is anything other than that, along with soldiers bitching about their kit and conditions, and the inevitable stress and tension between fighting men, particularly when the enemy is elusive and rarely clearly seen.Judging by other reviews, one might be forgiven for thinking that war is an entertainment franchise. Nice to see a war film directed by a former soldier with a grounding in the realities of combat, rather than some fist-pumping gung-ho CGI-fest directed by a Hollywood celebrity with a massive budget and zero experience of the realities of war.Something of an antidote to the usual war film cheerleading, and not one to appeal to MMRPG playing geeks.

Given this is a low-budget film, I wasn't expecting much. Perhaps it was going to have something to say about the war in the Middle East, about politics, interpersonal relationships, maybe even an action scene, but it really doesn't do any of that for me. Even with this initially low expectation, I was still disappointed.During a patrol we follow an incredibly unprofessional main character who complains persistently about anything/everything and is constantly putting everyone else down (just a terrible personality to have in a team; paranoid, easily stressed, quick to anger and takes it out on everyone else). I'm not entirely sure, but I think that through this character's annoyance at everything, there were some brief attempts to raise the question about whether soldiers are adequately equipped, or whether they were doing any good by being out there. The movie then ends, leaving me somewhat regretful. I don't mean to be that harsh on a low-budget film, but this really is one that I wouldn't recommend.

I saw this film at the Raindance Film Festival in London and was literally blown away: The sheer simplicity of the story layered with as convincingly portrayed combat scenes you are likely to see anywhere in the movies, with a strong underlying message that underscores the futility of armed combat. By the end of the movie you see half a dozen British soldier trudging through the sand and you wonder what act of political madness sent these good men on a mission of futility.The fact that a Brit has launched his feature film career with a movie of this ambition is, quite frankly, awesome.Also of note: Was Nominated for a British Independent Film Award