The Mosquito Bowl
I read a smug, condescending review of the new Peter Berg film THE MOSQUITO BOWL that called it out as too sports driven, too macho and too patriotic, a "film only your father or grandfather could love". Count me in, proudly.
While some in today's world may have a hard time celebrating the greatest generation, I was overwhelmed by the power, emotion, loss & triumph of the true story depicted within Berg's propulsive film.
As the film opens, we meet four key college football players from major schools, powerhouse players in their sport. These Saturday games, all seemingly played on wet, cold fields with snow beginning to drop (yes, the frozen tundra would be an apt description) take place on Saturday, December 6th, 1941.
John McLaughry, All-American Brown University QB is played by Nicholas Galitzine, who winningly played He-Man in the new "Masters of the Universe" reboot.
Bob Bauman, Wisconsin Lineman, is played by Bill Skarsgard of "It" fame. Dave Schreiner, Wisconsin End is played by Tom Francis, recently starring in "Sunset Boulevard" on Broadway.
The breakout performance of the film is Ray Nicholson as Tony Butkovich, Purdue Running Back. Nicholson is excellent and conjures up incredible DNA links with his famous father, Jack. He's funny, broad, emotional and a powerhouse in the role. There were moments and angles here that made me feel like I was watching Jack in "The Shining" or "Chinatown". He's that good.
After Pearl Harbor, depicted here with real footage and actual radio broadcasts, these four young men, along with thousands of others, enlist immediately to go fight for America. It's an inspirational sequence as our country rises up to defeat the enemy.
Berg drops these young men directly into the sea transports, approaching the beaches of Tarawa in the Pacific. Steven Spielberg's opening sequence in "Saving Private Ryan" will never be equaled, but Berg's staging of the Tarawa arrival at the beaches stands shoulder-to-shoulder with it in every way.
The sound design and special effects are absolutely first rate, with battleship guns pounding as these men are riddled with bullets, fire and explosions from every angle. It's harrowing as we watch these four men and those around them battle incredible odds to survive minute by minute.
As the days pass on the atoll, their mission in the wet, unforgiving jungles grows more murky. Their enemy is cutthroat, relentless and would rather die at their own hand than fail.
We grow to know more and more about these young men, who were all about 24 in real life when the events depicted took place.
The film settles into a middle section with accurate recreations of everything from life in the South Pacific barracks waiting for the next assignment to a Bob Hope Christmas time USO show. This is about as far from the romanticized take of Bette Midler's underappreciated 1991 film "For The Boys" as you can get.
As a Christmas treat, a football game is staged, bringing together all the best college football players serving in the Pacific arena. The sequence is everything it should be, fun, triumphant and joyous, if only for a moment.
The film then plunges the forces back into the invasion of Okinawa that ended the war, widely considered to be one of the most brutal events of WW2. The last half hour of the film is unyielding in its brutality, loss and combat.
Peter Berg is an underappreciated director. So many times, he has surpassed my expectations walking into a film. "Patriots Day", "Deepwater Horizons", "The Kingdom" are all very good to great films with something to say and incredible story telling within them. He's done it again here.
The music score by Explosions in the Sky (This Means War, Friday Night Lights) is excellent, always lurking beneath the action and adding to the action and drama in stylized fashion.
THE MOSQUITO BOWL is in theaters today and deserves to be seen on the big screen before it premieres on Netflix the day before Thanksgiving.
It is a proudly patriotic, gut punch, full-blooded American tribute to the greatest generation and four men as triumphant on the battlefields of the Pacific as they were on the gridiron. It gets an A.
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