WHEN TRUMPETS FADE Movie Review

1998 John Irvin

John Irvin's fine HBO war film is essentially a remake of Don Siegel's Hell Is for Heroes. The films tell virtually identical stories set in the autumn of 1944 on the Siegfried Line. More importantly, both are made with the same tough, pared down, laconic style. In many ways, Irvin's film is the more successful because it begins on a strong note and never really lessens the tension.

A bizarre opening scene introduces Manning (Ron Eldard), the only survivor of his platoon to make it back from a patrol. The situation is so tense, with the Allied forces stretched so thin against Germans who are now defending their own country, that Capt. Pritchett (Martin Donovan) immediately gives Manning a battlefield promotion to sergeant. He doesn't want it and tries to explain, “In the woods … I've done things.” But Pritchett doesn't have time. He gives Manning command of a group of untried replacements and sends them out to the snowy front. Of the new kids, Sanderson (Zak Orth), with his moon face and glasses, seems to be the weakest.

No one should know anything more about V.W. Vought's story. It is filled with violence—often grotesque and unsettling, never glamorous or gratuitous. Director Irvin and cinematographer Thomas Burstyn mute their colors, using brown and gray the way Siegel uses black-and-white. The Hungarian locations have a bone-chilling cold aura that's perfect for the melancholy mood of the piece. At the center of the film is a brilliant, complex performance by Ron Eldard.

Manning is faced with a series of moral questions that challenge his most basic assumptions about himself. At first, Manning claims to be a survivor. If he had any choice, he would refuse any promotion that put him in charge of another human being. He is not a coward and he is not going to ask others to take his duties. But how much does he owe to men he does not know? How separate and alienated from the others is he? As decisions and orders go down the chain of command, where does responsibility for the consequences lie? Whenever he thinks he has found a workable answer, the circumstances change and he has to reevaluate. Those are not easy emotions for an actor to work with, but Eldard is never less than completely convincing.

Though the film lacks the budget of its big-screen counterparts, that is not a concern for videophiles. It's actually an asset, because nothing is lost in the translation to video. This is a story about a few men caught up in a limited conflict. It's not about the sweeping power of mass troop movements. Scenes of that size would only distract attention from the individual emotions involved in a conflict that's no less intense on a one-to-one level. Nothing on screen here attempts to equal the opening of Saving Private Ryan, but the rest of the film can match it step for step. And the ending is stripped of all sentimentality.

For serious war movie fans, When Trumpets Fade is the film you may never have heard of but really have to see.

Cast: Ron Eldard (Manning), Zak Orth (Sanderson), Frank Whaley (Chamberlain), Dylan Bruno (Sgt. Talbot), Martin Donovan (Capt. Pritchett), Timothy Olyphant (Lt. Lukas), Dan Futterman (Despin), Dwight Yoakam (Lieutenant Colonel), Devon Gummersall (Replacement soldier), Jeffrey Donovan (Bobby); Written by: W.W. Vought; Cinematography by: Thomas Burstyn; Music by: Geoffrey Burgon. Producer: John Kemeny, David R. Ginsburg, Citadel Entertainment, HBO NYC Productions. MPAA Rating: R. Running Time: 93 minutes. Format: VHS, Closed Caption, DVD.