Wunderland is a film based in a time frame around the Battle of the bulge which itself was the last major German offensive campaign on the western front.
The film itself is based around a platoon defending against the German aggressors in the Ardennes Forrest in Belgium.
Directed by Steven Luke, it also stars Tom Berenger famouse for Platoon, Sniper and Born on the 4th of July - so he comes from good war movie stock - sadly his role in the film is limited, which may be a reflection on the small budget this film had,
The budget must have been tiny, as you see the various troops roam around a 'could be anywhere' landscape with only several vehicles per side and some really cheap/Free(sic) special effects which is basically a snow filter layer on top of the video footage.
Talking about snow and the period of the film, it is based at Christmas 1944 during one of Americas most brutal battles where they lost around 20,000 American soldiers, and the ice and snow had a tremendously huge impact on this period, foxholes could not be dug, tanks and traks struggled to traverse the land, infantry were frozen, malnurished and struggled to fight - not of this was strongly represented in this film, and for those looking for a casual war film you will have already stopped watching as the filtered snow effect was something you would see on a youtube amateur video rather than a historic war film depicting a story of bravery.
That being said, and armed with some historical knowledge I enjoyed the film - despite the actual footage being terribly short- and I would encourage people to watch it with an open mind and after doing some research.
Once the film has ended there is something on the scroll that 99% of people will never see - following the credits and lasting around 10 minutes, there are around 8-12 written stories of bravery of individual soldiers accomplishing Acts of bravery, and valour way beyond any call of duty and it is these historical, war and battle winning acts that make the film, and its evident on reflection the writer and director tried to use these examples in the storytelling of the film.
I do wish the memorial stories had been voiced over and were added chronologically, but reading these certainly invoked a lot of emotion and its commendable that these untold stories are brought to light.
On a side note, the memorial stories would make a great 2hr chronological anthology film about the battles in the Ardennes -any budding director out that feeling enthused to make a film like that - please add me to the cast!
A film worth watching with an open mind, let down by a crippling budget 7/10
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