This small-scale dramatic military anthology tells a familiar story of the endless cycle of war.
Jack Fessenden’s war film “Foxhole” is really three short war films spliced together, each revolving around a banal moral dilemma. The first, set during the Civil War, concerns a squad of Union soldiers who must decide whether to abandon a fortified trench to save the life of a wounded man; the second, during World War I, follows American soldiers on the front lines who must decide whether or not to execute a potentially dangerous German captive; the third, set in Iraq, focuses on a detachment of American soldiers who, separated from their convoy and under heavy fire, must choose between fleeing to higher ground on foot or remaining under tenuous cover in their damaged Humvee.
The three-part scope is ambitious, but “Foxhole” is a film made on a very small scale. The soldiers in each segment are played by the same actors — a theatrical conceit meant to emphasize, rather tritely, the eternal repetition of war — and the action is almost entirely limited, for the duration of the movie’s 95-minute running time, to the cramped confines suggested by the title. Fessenden, the son of the cult horror filmmaker Larry Fessenden, attempts to disguise the production’s slender means by way of several unconvincing tricks ordinarily found in student films, such as using blown-out high-contrast lighting to hide backgrounds in close-ups, and blanketing wider shots in thick, phony-looking fog. These gimmicks, however, do not mask the thin, superficial writing, which relies on blandly sentimental monologues and an assortment of patriotic war-flick clichés.
Foxhole
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
