Review
Forbidden Ground is an Australianmade rendition of the plight of British soldiers trapped in noman's land and should have been the war epic it was (once) anticipated to be. The unfortunate truth is that it falls short of all expectations and as a patriotic Australian I take no pleasure in saying it.
From the first moments the small budget is apparent. Closeups try and disguise the limited scale of the production. The battles in the film are all no more than small skirmishes and never really produced with any flair impact or suspense. The constant reliance on CGI for special effects cripples the action unlike it's predecessor Beneath Hill 60 which it will surely be compared to which used mostly practical visual effects and captures gritty violence effectively. As such when the horror of trench warfare comes along in this film it is woefully un engaging and downright boring in parts. I felt no connection with the men going to their deaths. The obvious computergenerated explosions and squibs left a lot to be desired and had no "punch." It's an antiwar film as most WWI films are so you would expect a focus on correctly portraying the shocking waste of war but Forbidden Ground lacks the budget or knowhow to do it properly.
There are some tired clichés including snobby arrogant officers and the hardnosed NCO and while historically accurate in some ways Forbidden Ground doesn't cast the roles with conviction simply recycling scenes and minor characters from a dozen better war films. The other problem with authenticity is that most of the cast is Australian and while our accents may be more or less similar and we often are mistaken for Poms the actors on show here can't quite make it sound natural and every line feels laborious and forced. If theyɽ just spoken with their normal accents they would probably have sounded more comfortable with their characters but alas every Pommy soldier on screen sounds like a caricature of British stereotypes.
Another problem with authenticity is that the unit that is focused on seems to be an amalgamation of British accents. Whether intentional or by accident units were formed from specific locales (universities rugby clubs towns cities etc) and would only occasionally be mixed with troops from broadly different locations (casualty replacements).
So the end result is a disappointing straighttoDVD war drama without any magnetism or flair. I praise the cast and crew for doing what they could to commemorate the war but I can't recommend Forbidden Ground as good viewing. Better luck next time.