Beyound The Line

 

Beyound The Line

 

 Surviving the end of the war: a review of Beyond the line (2019)

When a war is declared 'over', most people imagine an immediate end to hostilities.  Somehow at the moment when the guys in suits sign the papers everyone immediately stops shooting, stops shelling, stops killing. Instant peace, just add signatures.  The fact of the matter is something completely different
We have all heard stories about the lonely redoubt, soldier or battalion that continued to fight for years after the war ended. What most people do not consider is that most of the endings of the war cannot be reduced to one date, and that after the war is over there are still pockets of soldiers from all sides who refuse to lay down their arms, who refuse to believe that the conflict they have known for a long time is now over. This is where our story begins.  Sidney Baker (Chris Walters) is a young British soldier who has never been on the front lines.  Sent on a mission to help clean up pockets of Nazi resistance, Sidney soon finds himself alone and scared behind enemy lines.  He soon comes across William Summers (Jackson Berlin) an American soldier with what appears to be a Death Wish, who is determined to claim as many German lives as possible before he dies. Together they fight their way out of German occupied territory in what could be an ultimate suicide mission. Directed by Jason Mills, this is a survival story in the last days of one of the largest wars in human history
Collapse
I've always been a fan of war movies. From classic movies like the Great Escape and where eagles dare to even modern movies like Dunkirk, I find a well-made war movie irresistible.  So when I had the opportunity to review Jason Mills ' new film, Beyond the line, I couldn't get over it. Fortunately, I was not disappointed

Beyond the line is a straight-forward film, not wasting any time on superfluous moments or unnecessary narration choosing instead to focus on the matter at hand, surviving behind enemy lines. Running at just over an hour, not wasting a single moment in the narrative gives us almost perfect beats throughout with a fairly impressive speed.  It's rare to see a filmmaker tweak his work down to the basics and still be able to tell a good story but Mills managed to make it happen so well.  Of course this can not be done without solid casts and Mills has only in Chris Walters and Jackson Berlin
Both relative unknowns, having performed mostly smaller roles in film and television, it was nice to get a chance to see Walters and Berlin have a chance to take the lead in a feature film. The two are fascinating, perfectly embodying two very different views of the same war.  Sidney Baker (Walters) is a British soldier who just wants to go home.  He has no desire to kill and never imagined being on the front lines.  Walters managed to bring to reality the fear and uncertainty that this young soldier feels because he is forced to grow up on the battlefield of the war that was supposed to end.  On the other side, we have the American soldier William Summers (Berlin) who embodies the loud attitude closely associated with American soldiers.  He is angry and ready to fight but finds something in Baker that makes him want to keep the young soldier alive.  Sure, they come across rather stereotypical sometimes but the two really do a great job at making their personalities believable and relevant.  I can see them both coming out soon and honestly, they deserve it
While he hasn't broken into the mainstream yet, Jason Mills is starting to make his mark in the horror genre with movies like it came from the attic and 3 hours to death.  With his focus on horror, it was a shock to see him tackle a historical film about World War II but honestly, I think he found his calling.  For an independent film, Beyond the line is a well-produced and visually appealing film that looks like a high-quality History Channel movie. While not a very large screen is ready all the makings are there. One aspect that pulls it from greatness though, is the score and the overall sound design
Now don't get me wrong, the score is very good but often the music doesn't fit perfectly and tends to overwhelm the action in the film.  There are even points where the result is slightly over-regulated causing some distortion can be easily avoided. The film score should complement the film by adding to the narrative but not overshadow it.  In many ways, it's as if composer Thomas Beckman was trying to compose a score for a much larger film than he was working on, which caused the music to beat the film at almost every intense moment. If they relaxed back on the score, keeping it more of a hidden player than one that constantly tried to bypass the actors, it would be fine
Another aspect that almost derailed the narrative is the spontaneous narration of the film at strange moments in the form of Sidney Baker telling his story.  .  While actor Chris Walters does a good job of narrating, in many ways it felt weird and out of place, making it a very unnecessary tool in this movie. If this narrative had been tied to a specific scene or moment to determine who was telling the story to, it might have worked, but for this movie, it tends to take you out of the moment every time
The bottom line
In general, this is an excellent story of staying behind enemy lines.  With believable characters, a simple story and excellent visuals, beyond the line is a high-quality war movie and one that I'm happy to see.  While it had some issues, those little nits weren't enough to completely derail the movie.  I hope we can see more of this kind of work from Jason Mills because I would love to see what he can do with a bigger budget.  Mills has talent and we hope that this will catch the attention of one of the major studios

Beyond the line is distributed through Vision movies and is now available across all major cable platforms, iTunes, GooglePlay, Vudu, Vimeo, Amazon, and fandangono for Swarm 4 4.99-Rent 9.99 rent or buy and on DVD for $12.99 from all major retailers
Thank you for reading today. I hope you enjoyed the review. If you want to read more reviews, I have a series of many interesting films on my site that appear every time New.We also have a comprehensive review series of many blockbusters
As always, feel free to comment below and share your experiences with these movies as well. If you just happened by , Tell me what you think! Don't forget to follow me if you like the blog

We have all heard stories about the lonely redoubt, soldier or battalion that continued to fight for years after the war ended. What most people do not consider is that most of the endings of the war cannot be reduced to one date, and that after the war is over there are still pockets of soldiers from all sides who refuse to lay down their arms, who refuse to believe that the conflict they have known for a long time is now over. This is where our story begins.  Sidney Baker (Chris Walters) is a young British soldier who has never been on the front lines.  Sent on a mission to help clean up pockets of Nazi resistance, Sidney soon finds himself alone and scared behind enemy lines.  He soon comes across William Summers (Jackson Berlin) an American soldier with what appears to be a Death Wish, who is determined to claim as many German lives as possible before he dies. Together they fight their way out of German occupied territory in what could be an ultimate suicide mission. Directed by Jason Mills, this is a survival story in the last days of one of the largest wars in human history
I've always been a fan of war movies. From classic movies like the Great Escape and where eagles dare to even modern movies like Dunkirk, I find a well-made war movie irresistible.  So when I had the opportunity to review Jason Mills ' new film, Beyond the line, I couldn't get over it. Fortunately, I was not disappointed
Beyond the line is a straight-forward film, not wasting any time on superfluous moments or unnecessary narration choosing instead to focus on the matter at hand, surviving behind enemy lines. Running at just over an hour, not wasting a single moment in the narrative gives us almost perfect beats throughout with a fairly impressive speed.  It's rare to see a filmmaker tweak his work down to the basics and still be able to tell a good story but Mills managed to make it happen so well.  Of course this can not be done without solid casts and Mills has only in Chris Walters and Jackson Berlin
Both relative unknowns, having performed mostly smaller roles in film and television, it was nice to get a chance to see Walters and Berlin have a chance to take the lead in a feature film. The two are fascinating, perfectly embodying two very different views of the same war.  Sidney Baker (Walters) is a British soldier who just wants to go home.  He has no desire to kill and never imagined being on the front lines.  Walters managed to bring to reality the fear and uncertainty that this young soldier feels because he is forced to grow up on the battlefield of the war that was supposed to end.  On the other side, we have the American soldier William Summers (Berlin) who embodies the loud attitude closely associated with American soldiers.  He is angry and ready to fight but finds something in Baker that makes him want to keep the young soldier alive.  Sure, they come across rather stereotypical sometimes but the two really do a great job at making their personalities believable and relevant.  I can see them both coming out soon and honestly, they deserve it
While he hasn't broken into the mainstream yet, Jason Mills is starting to make his mark in the horror genre with movies like it came from the attic and 3 hours to death.  With his focus on horror, it was a shock to see him tackle a historical film about World War II but honestly, I think he found his calling.  For an independent film, Beyond the line is a well-produced and visually appealing film that looks like a high-quality History Channel movie. While not a very large screen is ready all the makings are there. One aspect that pulls it from greatness though, is the score and the overall sound design
Now don't get me wrong, the score is very good but often the music doesn't fit perfectly and tends to overpower the action in the movie.  There are even points where the result is slightly over-regulated causing some distortion can be easily avoided. The film score should complement the film by adding to the narrative but not overshadow it.  In many ways, it's as if composer Thomas Beckman was trying to compose a score for a much larger film than he was working on, causing the music to beat the film at almost every intense moment. If they relaxed back on the score, keeping it more of a hidden player than one that constantly tried to bypass the actors, it would be fine
Another aspect that almost derailed the narrative is the spontaneous narration of the film at strange moments in the form of Sidney Baker telling his story.  .  While actor Chris Walters does a good job of narration, in many ways it felt weird and out of place, which makes it a very unnecessary tool in this movie. If this narrative had been tied to a specific scene or moment to determine who was telling the story to, it might have worked, but for this movie, it tends to take you out of the moment every time
In general, this is an excellent story of staying behind enemy lines.  With believable characters, a simple story and excellent visuals, beyond the line is a high-quality war movie and one that I'm happy to see.  While it had some issues, those little nits weren't enough to completely derail the movie.  I hope we can see more of this kind of work from Jason Mills because I would love to see what he can do with a bigger budget.  Mills has talent and we hope that this will catch the attention of one of the major studios