The parable of survival in the Civil War An instructive story from the life of American farmers during the Civil War. In 1861, the state of Kentucky was divided by the warring camps of the Northerners and Southerners. In an atmosphere of extreme uncertainty and need, two brothers, Henry and Francis Mellon, fight for survival. Their farm is almost bankrupt, a small plantation of 50 hectares is overgrown with weeds and no one needs even for a meager fee. The brothers don't give up. In the hope of help, they turn to the successful neighbors Smalls for a loan, but they refuse them. Realizing his futility, Henry one day simply disappears into the dark while Francis still tries to work on the ground. His confidence in a happy future is reinforced by tender feelings for the daughter of Smalls, whom he intends to marry.
While Francis is trying to establish his own farm, Henry joins the Confederate army, not so much for ideological reasons, but for three meals a day. Timothy Morton showed the character, prone to pessimistic experiences. Take at least his second and third letter to his brother, which they exchange with enviable constancy. However, despite the obvious open ending, I want to hope for the best. After the famous Battle of Perryville in October 1862, where the army of the southerners was completely defeated, fate still gave Henry a second chance and he will try to use it. An unhappy brother returns to a farm in Kentucky, but Francis' happy face and his imminent wedding to Betsy Small do not give him pleasure. Henry clearly feels superfluous here, and again taking the lamp into his hands - disappears in the shadows.
This is a kind of parable film, a reasoning about the fact that everyone chooses his own path and is responsible for it. Whether it’s the confident workaholic Francis, the phlegmatic Henry, or the same woman with four children who has not received a letter from her Northern husband for the fifth week, but despite this, lets his Confederate enemy stay overnight – we are all of the same flesh! In general, the film has a clear pacifist orientation. Here a soldier from the South secretly exchanges urgent necessities with his enemy, in principle not considering him as such. Weary of the senseless and unnecessary fratricidal war and went to it rather because of the poverty in which the whole country is mired.
Those who expect good battle scenes from the film will be disappointed. And the point here is not in the ultra-small budget, but in the author's idea. The plot could have developed with the same success during our Economic Crisis (remember Ben Affleck’s “In the Company of Men?”). The civil war here is just a background designed to show the general discord and degradation, against which everyone survives as best he can. In the end, he gets what he deserves. And although much is still not defined, but like the birth of a new family of Francis and Betsy – ahead of the United States and a new rebirth, where the Smalls and Melones and all sorts of like them are simply forced to seek compromise.
“Men go to battle” has a pronounced arthouse orientation. This is a film for thoughtful people who like to speculate and look behind the scenes, trying to unravel the hidden that the creators of the film mean. There is practically no plot, but only some fragments - the daily drill of soldiers and short minutes before letters, only occasionally replaced by a battle, where everyone can die without even having time to load his own gun. Gordo holds the line, despite knowing that the next bullet is his, but has already reconciled himself to his fate, or perhaps even looking for it? In the film a lot of long so-called "empty" silent scenes - the hero just a few minutes silently walking through the field, or mowing grass on the plantation. During this time, the viewer is completely immersed in the atmosphere of what is happening and puts himself in the place of the hero. At the same time, this technique has a reverse side. Excessive emphasis on such techniques makes the film rather boring and monotonous. Sometimes you just struggle with the urge to turn off or fast forward. However, you will not lose much from this, since the film is clearly for an amateur and connoisseur of her like.
Despite this, the film aroused great interest from film critics, and its director Zachary Treutz won at the Tribeca Festivals, 2015 - as Best Novice Director and the Indy-Memphis Film Festival in the same year (Craig Brewer Award).
5 out of 10