Review of Full Battle Rattle (2008) by Chris M — 04 Oct 2009

"The more your sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.".

As a vet myself, I found this documentary completely engrossing. Right down to the finest detail, the documentary realistically captures an important part of our lives in the military. It's boring, stressful, exciting, depressing, and ironic. It ultimately prepares us for something bigger, but usually its not enough. I seriously wish that it went into a little more detail, but only for the benefit for the non-vets who don't understand certain aspects of military life (like the quick scene with the board games in the truck).

"Training," is the theme here (before a deployment) and that's about it. If you're looking for meaningful insight into the Iraq war or another anti-soldier/anti-war movie, look elsewhere. You won't be getting into the soldiers heads either, since most soldiers would rather you not ask about their sob stories and PTSD.

Anyways, if you consider yourself a troop-supporter and want to see soldiers in a realistic light that you haven't seen them before, I recommend to you this movie. Especially vets who've been through the old training sims.

PS - I wonder if anyone's considered making a documentary of our demob training.