RECON

US, 2019, 95 minutes, Colour.

Alexander Ludwig, Sam Keely, Chris Brochu, Franco Nero, Lochlyn Munro, RJ Featherstonehaugh.

Directed by Robert David Port.

Recon is based on a novel about a group of GIs during the Allied invasion of Italy. Perhaps, on the page, it plays more dramatically and plausibly than on screen.

One of the main criticisms of the film is that the expedition portrayed has all kinds of military limitations, making it implausible in so many aspects.

On the other hand, if the film is seen as a psychological drama, traumatic distress before it becomes post-traumatic distress, then there are some very strong moments.

Almost immediately, the dramatic and tragic situation is set up, the small group of soldiers, on the road, looking for Germans who are fleeing, shooting suspects, confronting a German officer and shooting him and the dilemma as to whether to shoot the woman in the wagon with him. He does shoot, several close-ups of the woman before she dies, her pleading, and images of the bullet in her head, images recurring throughout the film in the soldier’s imagination.

At the temporary headquarters, the group is commissioned to go out scouting to find Germans and the locations. Almost immediately, they find an old man with his wagon, an interesting presence by veteran Franco Nero, who tells them that the Germans are near. Some are suspicious of him but they follow his lead, into the mountains, trusting him to cross very long suspension bridge, only for one of the group to stand on a mine, lose his feet, die.

One of the questions an audience might ask is what supplies they have taken, no indication that they need food, sometimes a bottle of water, but they themselves are very noisy, a lot of the dialogue taken up with the bickering between two of the squad, a hostile and bigoted soldier, suffering exceedingly from a strong arm rash, and another soldier, often with a thoughtless remark, Jewish. The leader has to cope with this bickering as well as a drama of confrontation with a wolf, coming across death squad of Germans killing the locals.

The cheeky soldier is shot by a sniper, carried to safety by the soldier he bickered with, but eventually dying, propped up as a decoy in the same way they had found a dead German soldier. The leader keeps watch, tense, remembering the shooting episode. The soldier clashes with the Italian guide, not trusting him.

Eventually, they arrive back, their guide is found to have a map with partisan positions indicated, considered an enemy and the leader told to go out and shoot him. He is urged on by the suspicious soldier. But he cannot do it, remembering the initial shooting.

If an audience can bypass the defects in the realism, then it serves as a psychological drama of warfare and clashes.

1. The title, Italy, Americans, Germans, missions, crises?
2. The Italian setting, the Americans moving up Italy, pursuing the Germans? The base camp, encounters on the roads, confrontations with partisans, with Germans, shootings and killings, the recon expedition, through the forests, across the bridge? The musical score?
3. Memories of World War II, World War II films, comparisons with this film?
4. The initial encounter, the men, experience, training, personal attitudes, pressures? The wagons, the locals, the Germany merging behind the wagon, the confrontation with the woman, judging her as with the Germans, the confrontation, her plea, her being shot? And the replaying of her face throughout the film, haunting Marston?
5. Base camp, the command, the men, needing information, sending out the squad? Marson as leader? The personalities of the others? Clashes, bickering, taunts? Physical confrontations? Marson and his leadership?
6. The recon, comments about the military deficiencies of this presentation, set out, weapons, surveillance, loud and arguing? Unrealistic? Rather, a film about traumatic stress during an operation, leading to deaths, clashes, heroism?
7. The encounter with Angelo, suspect is a fascist, partisan, is offering to be guided, trust and lack of trust, his personality, speaking Italian, English, indications of his family, World War I? Is observing, his comments on the men and their clashes? Persuading them to go over the bridge? Accompanying, joint and his hostility? The concern for Ash? The return, the search, his having the map, the commander condemning him, telling Marson to shoot?
8. Tracking the Germans, Angelo telling them they were near, the long suspension bridge, the drama of the crossings, a sense of triumph, then the soldiers standing on the mine, going to get his foot, his death?
9. The character of Joiner, his bitterness, taunts, anti-Semitic, his arm rash and his continued scratching, taking off his jacket, despairing, Ash and his support?
10. Through the forest, the confrontation with the war? The discovery of the Germans, the death squad, the shooting of the innocent people, the tanks? The group watching?
11. The return, Ash and the sniper, Joiner and the previous hostility, helping him with the blood and the wound, carrying him? – And dying, set up as a decoy, along with the dead German soldiers they found?
12. Marson, tense, memories of the shooting of the woman, staying behind, to get the sniper, the decoy, the shooting, the Italian sniper? Marson’s reaction?
13. The return, the commander, his reactions, Angelo, ordering him to be shot?
14. Marson, the confrontation with Angelo, memories, unable to shoot him, letting him go? Joiner and his appeal? The commander?
15. A psychological drama rather than a realistic war movie?