fredgfinklemeyer 07/31/2018 Movie does NOT portray history in any way. All you're going to be watching will be a small group of "Aussie cowards" hiding out in the jungle trying to NOT get killed by invading japs. (2) hours of wasted movie watching time. Lead In Movie Quote: A bitter battle is fought between Australian and Japanese soldiers along the Kodoka trail in New Guinea during World War II. Comment: NO Bitter Battles in this movie. Wiki quote: The Kadoka Track campaign or Kodoka Trail campaign was part of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign consisted of a series of battles fought between July and November 1942 in what was then the Australian Territory of Papua. It was primarily a land battle, between the Japanese South Seas Detachment under Major General Tomtaro Horii and Australian and Papuan land forces. The Japanese objective was to seize Port Moresby by an overland advance from the north coast, following the Kodoka Track over the mountains of the Owen Stanley Range, as part of a strategy to isolate Australia from the United States.

Getaway Trekking (getawaytrekking) Further to the remarks of another reviewer, this movie is not without its flaws but, on the whole, it makes for a fantastic insight into what I try to accomplish (from an educational sense) each time I lead a trek on the Kokoda Track.As the owner of a small business specialising in treks to the Kokoda Track, I pride myself - as well as the rest of our team - on educating those that make the effort to walk such a sacred trail about the Kokoda campaign.It's difficult to display the overwhelming sensation I often see when our groups gain a slight understanding of what Australian soldiers had to endure.Let's be clear and say that this is a film, however for what it is - the movie definitely portrays life as an Australian soldier during this horrendous period and provides a small insight into what they had to endure.I applaud the film-makers for what they have achieved with this film and will be recommending it to all Getaway Trekking hikers along the Kokoda Track.Sue Fitcher Getaway Trekking - Australia http://www.getawaytrekking.com.au

Owen5-1 Anyone who has rubbished this film has no real idea of either jungle warfare, the Kokoda retreat or the unit about whom the story is based. In fact, the only real criticism(and the reason why I only gave it 8) was due to the minimal depth of general detail because of the budgetary restrictions.I wont bother to point out individual ignorance here as most comments say more about the critic than they do about the movie. It is NOT a movie about Kokoda, but about a small part of the retreat of the 39th battalion from Kokoda to Isurava where the remnants were relieved by the 2/14th battalion AIF. The 39th was a MILITIA unit. Not regulars. It was made up of conscripts, was poorly trained(compared to AIF units) and was virtually shanghai'd to New Guinea. None of the troops had any military experience, let alone jungle warfare experience and most had never seen a jungle before. Yet this battalion held up the advance of between 3x and 9x their number(varied depending upon the place) of Japanese veteran troops who at that time were the undefeated and undisputed masters of jungle warfare(In fact it was the Australians at Milne Bay who gave the Japanese army its first defeat in WW2 about two weeks later, not the Americans at Guadalcanal).I have had quite a large amount of experience with terrain like this and was always grateful that no one was shooting at me at the time. You have to experience mud to your neck to believe it possible and you must also realise that along the Kokoda trail it was hot and wet during the day and freezing cold and wet during the night and virtually every soldier had malaria and dysentery. The individuals in the movie portrayed quite accurately how some of the 39th behaved as well as their fates. The comment that this was a "horror movie" was a total understatement as ALL Australians captured along the Kokoda trail by the Japanese were used for bayonet practice and the discovery of their mutilated corpses there as well as those left behind by the Japanese at Milne Bay made the taking of Japanese prisoners a very rare event. Naturally the (mostly unseen in the movie as it was in real jungle warfare) Japanese also had disease and climatic problems in their advance but having had a relative who died as a Japanese POW I find it hard to be sympathetic towards them. One detail which was poorly understood by many who saw the movie, was that upon reaching Isurava the 39th was relieved by the 2/14th and gave up all of the "tommy" guns and Bren guns to that battalion. As they were starting to return to Port Moresby along the track the remnants of the battalion (~140 out of >500), all ill and with up to 30% weight loss. heard the huge outpouring of fire behind them as the Japanese threw a whole regiment at the 2/14th. Without a murmur or an order, the whole 39th turned around and with rifles only rejoined the fray and arrived at a crucial period.I do hope that one day someone will do a large budget movie on the retreat of the whole 39th along the trail. They deserve it. this movie is accurate but shows only a small fragment of their story.

dbf1979 While The Mud, The Sickness and the Unsettling Horrors, Of fighting a war in the Papuan Rainforest, Against the seemingly unstopable (Albeit Mis-Represented!) Japanese foe are well captured..The soldiers "Chocos" personalities however?, Are not! The viewer is just not given a lot of background information on these men...Where they came from?, Why they were fighting?..Etc!.., Leaving the viewer not really caring, As to who survives the ordeal.On top of that, The movie is affected by a slightly heavyhanded bit of Australian Nationalism, Not that's an overly bad thing?, It's just that it's feels 'shoehorned' in, For the occasion of the movie release..ANZAC Day!