Really Surprised!

Let's be realistic.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Tom Petch delivers a well-paced no frills look at the realities of the early days of the British Army's recent involvement in Afghanistan. To anyone with any knowledge of this conflict, or of some of the less than brilliant equipment British soldiers generally have to put up with, it offers few surprises, but that is not to say that it isn't worth a look.It works well thanks to some great performances from the cast, combined with a sterling attempt at showing battles and the nuances of the chain of command in a small unit, wrapped up in a realistic production, rather than in an overtly CGI-laden Hollywood style. There is some CGI and matting of course, since when limited to a budget of about a million quid, and filming on location overseas, one cannot afford to have AH-64s, F-16s, A-10 and CH-47s on call. But even though there are some visual effects, they are well done and thanks to the almost documentary-like cinematography of many action sequences, such effects composite shots slot in convincingly enough to not detract from the narrative at all, in fact most people probably won't even realise they are CGI shots, which is the essence of what good CGI should be of course.Despite the storyline being not especially revelatory (i.e. the familiar tropes are all in evidence here: war is bad, war is often pointless and futile, officers are posh, the ranks are working class, the equipment sucks, the conditions are tough, the enemy is elusive, etc) the film does manage a couple of things which are often not done well in other war movies, in conveying the loneliness of command, as well as the 'them and us' feeling often prevalent among the ranks and how a code of conduct beyond mere salutes develops when away from HQ. This alone is compelling enough to keep you watching and is indicative of the director's ability to convey a subject he knows well to his cast, in that he was actually a British Army officer who experienced this first hand.Being that Tom Petch is both the writer and director of the film, this is a very good effort, all the more so when we take note of the fact that he has previously only directed one short film and had a couple of jobs as a technical military adviser on one or two other movies.So, no real surprises in the storyline, especially given the opening narrative which telegraphs part of the tale to us, but The Patrol is certainly worth a look for its convincing portrayal of combat for an isolated small unit in a largely pointless war, as it does this better than a lot of other films which have tried on a much larger budget.

I suppose if your experience is limited to veteran level on Call of Duty or Michael Bay films then this probably isn't your cup of tea.I saw this film in Brighton recently, and was very impressed given the limited budget. Combat is 98% boredom and 2% sheer terror, and this film didn't try to make out that war is anything other than that, along with soldiers bitching about their kit and conditions, and the inevitable stress and tension between fighting men, particularly when the enemy is elusive and rarely clearly seen.Judging by other reviews, one might be forgiven for thinking that war is an entertainment franchise. Nice to see a war film directed by a former soldier with a grounding in the realities of combat, rather than some fist-pumping gung-ho CGI-fest directed by a Hollywood celebrity with a massive budget and zero experience of the realities of war.Something of an antidote to the usual war film cheerleading, and not one to appeal to MMRPG playing geeks.

review contains spoilers.This movie was horrible. That its written on the cover art "the British answer to the hurt locker" is honestly offensive. The film lacks any semblance of plot whatsoever. It is beyond me why the other review made some comment about the combat scenes being realistic. As a combat veteran of the Israeli army, I can safely say that they were anything BUT realistic. Its as if the director looked up "combat Iraq" on youtube, found a video shot with some soldiers helmet cam and decided that that was what combat looks like. This could not be farther from the truth. The special effects were horrible. The acting was horrible. There was a complete lack of character development. I cannot believe that I just watched more than an hour of fake soldiers bitching about their equipment. If you expected an action movie, look elsewhere. If you enjoy being bored out of your mind and annoyed this movie is for you. If you are a combat veteran stay far away, this movie is an insult of the highest level.

I saw this film at the Raindance Film Festival in London and was literally blown away: The sheer simplicity of the story layered with as convincingly portrayed combat scenes you are likely to see anywhere in the movies, with a strong underlying message that underscores the futility of armed combat. By the end of the movie you see half a dozen British soldier trudging through the sand and you wonder what act of political madness sent these good men on a mission of futility.The fact that a Brit has launched his feature film career with a movie of this ambition is, quite frankly, awesome.Also of note: Was Nominated for a British Independent Film Award