Plot In a Nutshell: This short film relates a tale of enemies peacefully coming together at Christmas, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge. And while that might sound similar to "The Christmas Truce" story from The Great War, this one is different.
Unbeknownst to each other, American and German soldiers converge on a local farmhouse one night in deep winter, seeking shelter. Surprised to see each other, their natural reactions can be predicted but, cooler heads prevail and together they share a meal and actually exchange a gift or two.
There is a short battle sequence with a few explosions that don't look too bad, given the likely limited funds available for this film. The biggest drawback of it is that it is very very short (16 minutes), so before you know it, it's over. It felt like this story could have been developed into something much deeper than what we get. Also, given the extremely short running time, there is no character development to speak of. You don't know who these people are, their motivations, backstories or anything else. Basically, you witness a quick battle scene and then the encounter in the farmhouse and that's it. And while that makes for an interesting little story, that's really all it is - an interesting little story. I liked it, but it's difficult to give something of that caliber anything higher than a 6.
6/10. Not bad, feels like it could have been more.
Unbeknownst to each other, American and German soldiers converge on a local farmhouse one night in deep winter, seeking shelter. Surprised to see each other, their natural reactions can be predicted but, cooler heads prevail and together they share a meal and actually exchange a gift or two.
There is a short battle sequence with a few explosions that don't look too bad, given the likely limited funds available for this film. The biggest drawback of it is that it is very very short (16 minutes), so before you know it, it's over. It felt like this story could have been developed into something much deeper than what we get. Also, given the extremely short running time, there is no character development to speak of. You don't know who these people are, their motivations, backstories or anything else. Basically, you witness a quick battle scene and then the encounter in the farmhouse and that's it. And while that makes for an interesting little story, that's really all it is - an interesting little story. I liked it, but it's difficult to give something of that caliber anything higher than a 6.
6/10. Not bad, feels like it could have been more.