A platoon of allied soldiers have been stranded deep in enemy territory, due to orders from their incompetent commanding officer. Now, trapped behind enemy lines they must band together and fight their way to freedom. Through countless ambushes and tragedies, all amidst the horror of war, these soldiers must find their way to freedom, and ultimately find themselves. (oh christ) This is the UK DVD's blurb btw.
If The Cross Roads has not been two hours long and packed in more action sequences, I could see myself giving it a pass. But what we have here is not a war action film, but a war epic, woefully underfunded and ill-equipped to be so. Being shot on late 2000's digital video, i do feel bad when saying the colour grade was washed out garbage, but still, it has to be said, it was washed out garbage and the most notably bad creative decision out of many on display in this film.
We also have to deal with terrible shaky cam, overbearing music, an over reliance on natural lighting and over the top acting by it's french cast. Not to mention the little things such as poor sound design, CGI explosions and cheap looking weapons and costumes. Again, if this was an honest to god warsploitation affair, I would be more lenient. But unfortunately for me and anyone else watching, director Mr Aboucaya had higher ambitions.
The most french aspect of this film, apart from it's all French speaking cast is it's script, which is not as bad as most reviewers online have suggested. There is some decent drama to be found here and the dialogue for the most part is articulate, poetic, philosophically sound and presents the most whimsical portrayal of U.S marines outside of a comedy. The Cross Roads fails most is with its attempts to recreate that particular brand of Speilbergian sentimentalism as all WWII dramas post Saving Private Ryan attempt to do. And since we all know the French are all up in that kind of chintzy bollocks, it should be no surprise that The Cross Roads hams it up to the point of absurdity, undoing all the good will it built with it's audience through it's message and genuine attempt at obtaining an epic scope. What we are left with then is a low budget historical melodrama with severe inaccuracies and awful pacing.
If The Cross Roads has not been two hours long and packed in more action sequences, I could see myself giving it a pass. But what we have here is not a war action film, but a war epic, woefully underfunded and ill-equipped to be so. Being shot on late 2000's digital video, i do feel bad when saying the colour grade was washed out garbage, but still, it has to be said, it was washed out garbage and the most notably bad creative decision out of many on display in this film.
We also have to deal with terrible shaky cam, overbearing music, an over reliance on natural lighting and over the top acting by it's french cast. Not to mention the little things such as poor sound design, CGI explosions and cheap looking weapons and costumes. Again, if this was an honest to god warsploitation affair, I would be more lenient. But unfortunately for me and anyone else watching, director Mr Aboucaya had higher ambitions.
The most french aspect of this film, apart from it's all French speaking cast is it's script, which is not as bad as most reviewers online have suggested. There is some decent drama to be found here and the dialogue for the most part is articulate, poetic, philosophically sound and presents the most whimsical portrayal of U.S marines outside of a comedy. The Cross Roads fails most is with its attempts to recreate that particular brand of Speilbergian sentimentalism as all WWII dramas post Saving Private Ryan attempt to do. And since we all know the French are all up in that kind of chintzy bollocks, it should be no surprise that The Cross Roads hams it up to the point of absurdity, undoing all the good will it built with it's audience through it's message and genuine attempt at obtaining an epic scope. What we are left with then is a low budget historical melodrama with severe inaccuracies and awful pacing.