Foxhole (2021)

 

                Once upon a time, Jack Fessenden had an idea for a movie.  How about creating a war movie that covers three different wars in three different centuries.  The soldier experience could be compared by putting them in similar circumstances.  The theme would be the universality of war.  Fessenden wrote the screenplay and directed the film himself.  He used the same actors for the three scenarios and the movie was shot in 16 days.  Needless to say, it was low budget.

                The first war is the Civil War.  Four Yankees are preparing a fox hole in an advanced position in a forest.  It is large and has sandbags for extra protection.  This will be the best damned foxhole in the war!  The digging is interrupted by the appearance of black soldier.  He’s wounded, but he tells them an attack is coming.  One of the four is an asshole who wants to let him die, but the others decide to help him to a field hospital.  Two of the four make a stretcher and carry him away.  That’s right, with an attack coming, they send half their group away.  Suddenly, we are on the Western Front in WWI.  The same five actors are portraying doughboys stringing barbed wire in no man’s land.  They find a German who warns of an upcoming attack.  Déjà vu, right?  Then its off to Iraq for a scene set in a Humvee.  The camera does not leave the interior.  Surprise, there is a female soldier on board.  In a sandstorm, the Americans are surrounded by jihadists.  An RPG disables the vehicle.

                This is a weird movie.  I give Fessenden credit for thinking outside the box, but the execution is faulty.  The stories are not clearly linked.  I was not able to determine what they had in common, other than the same actors.  And then we suddenly have a female tossed in, so there goes the theory of putting the same men in different wars.  The situations are also not clearly related.  Hell, only one has a foxhole.  And that’s a war that did not have foxholes!  One is forced to assume Fessenden is not too big on military history.  There’s a slight vibe that the movie has a religious message, but it is too subtle to register. 

                I have seen some good low budget war movies (and many crappy ones).  It is possible to make a good impression without bells and whistles, but you better make up for funding by being innovative and sincere.  There are some low budget gems like “84 Charlie MoPic” which used the found-footage approach to take the audience on a long-range patrol in Vietnam.  “Foxhole” tries to be different. However, sincerity does not overcome a weak script.  And then you have to put up with the amateurish acting.  “Foxhole” tries to finish strong with the claustrophobic Humvee act, but it does not finish strong as that third of the film has long stretches where nothing happens. 

                Modern technology has allowed filmmakers like Fessenden to bring their ideas to a screen without much funding.  That screen is usually not a theater screen.  Movies like “Foxhole” reach smaller screens via streaming.  The good thing is war movie lovers can see these movies without having to leave home or buy a ticket.  The bad news is a lot more bad war movies hurt eye balls.  You can criticize the studio system that green lights all those super hero movies and mindless action films over more daring projects, but at least the studios held down the number of tepidly entertaining independent movies.

GRADE  =  D