Allies   Starring: Julian Ovenden, Chris Reilly, Erich Redman, Matt Jay-Willis and Werner Daehn Distributor: Entertainment One RRP: £19.99 Certificate: 15 Release Date: 03 November 2014

With the war in Europe now pushing back the Germans, intelligence is the key to victory. When the allies discover that they have the opportunity to get their hands on a set of maps detailing all of the Germans positions, they enlist hardened British Special Forces to retrieve them. Things do not start well as the soldiers are placed under the command of an American. Can the men put aside their natural animosity to complete the mission or will it kill them all...?

Allies (2014. 1hr, 29 min, 44 sec) is an independent British war movie, directed by Dominic Burns.

This is a solid movie, which is only let down by production costs and then only on rare occasions when it needs to move the action away from the personal relationships to the wider war itself. Close combat is done well, with a lot of action and pace, but the larger engagements, of which there are not enough to spoil your overall enjoyment, betrays the film's limited budget. There is nothing terribly original on show and what it does, it does well.

Captain Gabriel Jackson (Julian Ovenden) is given command of a set of battle hardened British troops, which allows the film to portray the camaraderie which often grew up between people of disparate nations and social classes when under fire. The acting sells this well and you really start to care about what will happen to the men and the mission, especially as they seem to suffer an inordinate amount of bad luck leading to the thought that someone is giving away their position.

Butting heads with Jackson is Sergeant Harry McBain (Chris Reilly) who sees himself as both the leader and protector of his men and is not at all happy that some upstart American is suddenly responsible for their fates. Of course, as the two go through the mission they build first a grudging respect and then a tentative friendship.

The film does have a sub plot, revolving around the identity of the spy, but to be honest the actor looked so shifty through most of the film he wasn’t that difficult to spot. Having retrieved the maps, what’s left of the group are rescued by the resistance, cue soldier falling in love with a pretty mademoiselle, played by Emmanuelle Bouaziz. Honestly, were there no ugly women in France during the Second World War?

The disc has two main extras the Deleted Scenes (13 min, 57 sec) which add little to the film, but it's interesting to see what was cut to get the time down and Behind the Scenes (18 min, 10 sec) shows you how the film was made.

The film gets only a single audio track, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, with English subtitles.

The movie is at its best when dealing with the more intimate aspects of the men’s relationships. Not unlike Saving Private Ryan in that it’s a war road movie, it is less mawkish, even if it couldn’t match the formers budget. Still it’s well worth a look if you like war films.

7

Charles Packer