The Eight Hundred

The visuals of this film are artistically cinematic and very gritty. It's a beautiful picture with tons of on screen action. The director adds so many simultaneous events in each frame that it kept my eyes busy scanning the periphery to take it all in. This film has high budget written all over it. From the sets, customs, cgi, special effects and large cast it's very impressive. You can also see a lot of American and European cinematic influences in the film. Especially during the flag raising which was reminiscing of Iwo Jima flag raising. The gory firefights and sniper kills gets your heart running.

Where the film falls short are the many overdrawn patriotic speeches and at first they are cool but become long on the tooth in this 3+ hour film which actually felt like four hours or more. Many scenes don't add much to the story and I think distracts from the film. I think this film could use an editor to shorten the film a bit and clear up the story.