Men Go To Battle doesn’t have characters speaking for history. This makes it different from nearly every war movie ever created. And while the quiet plot of Men Go To Battle may not make for the most exciting war movie, the utter lack of interest in history lessons is fresh enough to keep Men Go To Battle riveting to watch.
Men Go To Battle is about two dullard brothers whose behavior would probably seem familiar to many modern 20-somethings. Henry (Tim Morton) and Francis (David Maloney) put in a little hard work, but prefer taking breaks and complaining. Francis buys stupid things he shouldn’t. Henry sucks at talking to women. They both get too drunk and destroy shit, or play super dangerous pranks on each other with gun powder. They’re awesome and they care far more about making money than the Civil War raging south of their Kentucky homestead.
Men Go To Battle Could Use a Better Trailer
When one brother goes to battle and the other stays behind they keep up a rough correspondence by letter. Henry and Francis express themselves in stuttering formalities, both just slightly too literal to see past the other’s assertion that everything is going great.
There’s a scene in Men Go To Battle where a bunch of Union soldiers sing a song for fun and that’s all. Ever since Dr. Strangelove movies have jumped to make ironic juxtapositions with music. If not irony, then you can bet a song sung aloud will be heavy with extra meaning by the end. And if Men Go To Battle were like every other Civil War movie we’d be cutting away to a battlefield infirmary, or a man crying, or even fly further afield and drop in on the lonely women back at the homestead. Nope, in Men Go To Battle men sing songs because they’re sitting around and they’re bored and they enjoy singing songs.
It’s not that Men Go To Battle is shallow. Every bit of it feels calculated to capture Civil War era life, just without the usual distance of historical perspective. There is real depth here, but it’s about brotherhood and growing apart, rather than the typical war narratives.
The director of Men Go To Battle, Zachary Treitz, won Best New Narrative Director at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was well deserved. Men Go To Battle is also deserving of praise for its fantastic dialogue and perfect performances from its leads.
But maybe the simplest way to explain how successful Men Go To Battle is at capturing the Civil War era is to talk about its parties. Parties in period pieces always look formal and dull. The parties in Men Go To Battle look like a great time. There's carousing and drinking punch and jug bands and flushed, over-eager conversations with members of the opposite sex. It’s a minor detail, but it speaks to the incredible empathy Men Go To Battle achieves as it effortlessly tosses you back in time.
