Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

rbruceorrell Okay it was not that bad. However, I am disappointed with the standard old interpretations of the characters. The German trench commander had the obligatory scar down the left cheek, he spoke in quick mono-syllable orders.The young private being torn a new one because he was scared and not a man by a man who had just become so mentally scarred that he could not think any different.And then the story "at home"... really, that added 0% to the film.90 minutes of my life wasted.I think that what was shown in the battle field was a very good representation of what it was like.

Peter Pluymers An Australian attempt to create an image of the terrible battles that were held in WWI. They managed to show that on a small scale. Military units in dirty miserable conditions, sitting in mud and other dirt waiting until they were driven into a certain death. The whistling of bullets and explosions of bombs. The fear in the eyes of young soldiers who probably didn't even know what this war was about.The image I'll remind of this movie was that of the arrogant superior who, without hesitation, gives an order to attack, although this would lead to needless bloodsheding. Because this was totally unnecessary and pointless in this stage of the battle, since they were planning for a heavy bombardment on the German positions. It was a showcase of egocentric display of power. I don't understand how come those hundred men in the trenches don't jump on that fagot coward collectively and chased him on the battlefield with a gun.Anyway, the introduction of this film is the rush towards the German position, realising that no one will reach the other side alive. Don't expect grand heroic scenes like in "Saving Private Ryan", but rather limited images and close-ups. A clear sign that this is a low-budget film. The three soldiers Sergeant Major Wilkins , private O'Leary and Corporal Jennings , survive the massacre and end up in no man's land between the two lines. The rest of the battalion is spread over the mud-filled grounds. From here on starts the biggest part of the movie, because going back to their own trenches takes time. Corporal Jennings is very badly injured (A full leg torn away) which makes that the withdrawal is not so evident. This section is therefore extremely boring. It's not because of the acting. The acting is still acceptable despite the circumstances . But to be honest, a slowly receding threesome is not much to work with and to get an exciting story.Eventually they made up a parallel story in which the wife of Sergeant Major Wilkins plays a leading role. She's pregnant and wants an abortion. Something that wasn't obvious to do at that time. Eventually she asks the help of a nurse who doesn't have experience with this operation. Obviously this ends up in a complete tragedy. And what a coincidence ! This nurse is the fiancée of Corporal Jennings, who at the same time ceased to live on the battlefield."Forbidden Ground" mostly succeeded in visualizing the atmosphere and the horror in WWI, now 100 years ago. In terms of content, it's a disaster and the story itself is a bit far fetched.More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/

jess-san13 An excellent, well-shot indie film. Watching this film, you would not have guessed this is not a large scale big budget Hollywood film that was shot in rural Australia. Having studied the World War 1 conflict in history not too long ago, this film has really captured the essence of what it must have been like fighting in the trenches. The grimy faces, water logged trenches, the fear of bombs and bullets flying over your head. And although some viewers find that the antagonists to be the Germans, I feel that it is the heartless British lieutenant who is ordering the men to their deaths the real villain of the story. There are two main threads of narrative; the main being the tale of survival and mateship as Sergeant Major Arthur and Private O'Leary attempts to drag a legless Corporal Jennings back to safety from No Man's Land. And the second plot, the heart-wrenching tale of Aruthr's wife Grace, who is back home in England, as she decides whether to keep the unborn child of another man and face Arthur's pain of her betrayal when he returns, or risk everything to spare him. She enlists the help of Nurse Eve for the operation, who at the end we find out is the fiancé of Corporal Jennings.These two stories become interwoven as the story is untold; as Jennings lays dying in Arthur's arms, Arthur's own wife is dying at the same time in Eve's arms. This scene cuts between the four characters, unaware of what is happening to the other. After the war, when Arthur and the audience discover Eve is Jennings fiancé, the brutality of war for both those who are fighting at the front and those back home becomes apparent.

mecheart Few films in comparison to the number of those examining other armed human conflicts have provided a look at the hopeless blood soaked, mud clogged trenches of the First World War and fewer still have lent voice to the courage, will and love for their fellow soldiers of the men who followed without question orders which amounted to voluntary mass suicide in a hell scorched land far from the blessed sight of their most beloved.Johan Earl and Adrian Powers have in 'Forbidden Ground' crafted the viewer such a window into one of the darkest periods of the 20th century. Their film movingly throws us into the trenches of the British Army and its portrayal of the raging machine of war as it grounds young terrified men into its only product - something much different than they were before, alive or dead. The film seizes the senses and raises tension from scene to scene.The plot forwards the stories of two British married couples; the men at war while the women walk trancelike, waiting through the motions of a special hell of their own for word that their spouses still live. The two story lines unfold against the backdrop of their individual struggles for survival and preservation of sanity which tragically become more difficult when their lives intersect. Surrounding them all is the War and distance, time and pain of absence.Sergeant Major Arthur Wilkins played by Johan Earl and Corporal Richard Jennings played by Martin Copping are men hardened and desensitized as they are ruined and broken by their years in the maw of combat. Both are fair, natural leaders who care for the men they command, but they've lost their identities, they've forgotten what their lives were like before the War began. Indeed, the surreal daily ballet of carnage their lives have become leaves them with weakening connection to the women they married and eventually sees them becoming brothers in arms trapped in a situation neither will ever completely escape.Grace Wilkins, wife of Arthur played by Denai Gracie and Eve Rose, fiancé or wife of Corporal Jennings are the ones their men left behind. Nightmares of Arthur's rejection of her upon his return plague Grace, and for aid with the condition she faces which could hurt her husband more even than the terrors of war, she feverishly seeks aid and finds its only source in Eve. Eve has suffered her man's absence as much as Grace, and in so genuinely needing to aid her causes irrevocable harm.The film is a war movie, and it is also a tragic drama which explores the consequences of meetings between average people who find themselves already connected in ways they never could have imagined. The historical accuracy of the period is spot on as are the booming, ground churning scenes of battle of which there are several. For the budget available, the film makers did a great job although the continuity and viewer perception of the size of outdoor spaces sometimes feel askew and not to scale.'Forbidden Ground' is a gritty, visceral war film wrapped around a touching story driven by characters with many shades of depth. Their reactions and solutions to the horrible situations they find themselves in is compelling and this viewer found himself only wishing they could get through it all and have the opportunity to heal, together - reunited at last.I highly recommend 'Forbidden Ground' to the fan of war films as World War I remains a blemish on history mostly glossed over by popular fiction. The period equipment, weapons and dress on the battlefield and off are well reproduced, and the actors who portray the interesting characters inhabiting this study of the chilling effects of war on its victims - war makes all of us its victims - are worthy of the viewers time and praise. For most every other mature moviegoer the film is also a worthwhile watch: the tragically intersecting fates of these characters will reach you on some level.8/10