People are voting emotionally.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Could have done without the contrived father/son drama at the start of the film, it was so bad I almost stopped watching it. Luckily I kept on watching it, it really picked up steam in the second half when the film was devoted to the 101st in operation strong eagle III. It really highlighted the sacrifice of the soldiers and their willingness to give all.I was a civilian contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, the losses and ceremonies commemorating them were always sad. The professionalism of the US troops, despite the politics and questionable nature of the Iraq War always made me proud.

At its core I love what this doccie does: it presents some front line perspectives of American soldiers fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. That in itself is impressive and at times harrowing.But then the movie wraps itself in a jacket of awful ideas. The soundtrack feels ripped from every reality show made in the past few years. I almost started to expect a host from something like Fear Factor to show up. The storytelling is also very convoluted. It skims details and personalities, briefly introducing them before running to the next plot point.While it goes out of its way to highlight the sacrifices made by the soldiers, The Hornet's Nest gives little clarity on what is going on half of the time. Other than bring across the intensity of firefights, much more isn't revealed.But my biggest problems are the cheap narrative tricks. At times moments are made more dramatic than they are, especially if it involves one of the journalists potentially getting shot. This is done twice and both times it's more a trick of editing than what actually happened.I'd liken this to Ross Kemp's Afghanistan doccies: intense, but vapid and a little bit exploitative. You don't come out of The Hornet's Nest learning much, other than Americans are great soldiers. If that is the point, this succeeds. But it could have done so much more with its material instead of feeling like a made-for-reality-TV special.

If you have ever seen the woods surrounding Bastogne, Belgium? I watched this film I wondered if war truly ever ends, or does the scenery just change. I enjoyed the movie and about the father and son bonding in the middle of a war zone. It just hit me that, like Restrepo, the tactics here resembled the Thunder Run down Highway One in Vietnam. No solid Intel, just Gator Bait with bullets and bombs. That troubled me, because using Gator Bait tactics, the result is almost always the same. The Officers didn't appear to prepare the NCOs for an Op in the Devil's front yard. But then again, how do you prepare to fight an enemy, in their back yard, that fought the Roman Legions and the British Empire? I do not think you can find the answer in FM 25-100 and FM 25-101. I agree that we just planted seeds, really expensive seeds.

For those of us who are civilians, this is as close as we're going to get combat. Considering what you'll see, that's still almost too close.This is a war documentary, not a war movie. I sincerely appreciate that it's on the big screen and not Discovery Channel or the former Military Channel. It has that "Iraq Diaries: Alpha Company" vibe to it...with a bit more danger. I'm also reminded of Sean Parnell's "Outlaw Platoon" memoir.I'm glad I saw it, but it weighs heavy.As an Army daughter, Navy wife, and Marine mother, I have the utmost respect for our Armed Forces. This documentary also shares my respect.