I thought this movie had possibilities. Then the first scene has a Lt. Bribing a sergeant. While I won't say that doesn't happen, it certainly isn't that blatant. The interaction with lower enlisted and officers in the guard is fairly realistic, I find it funny the "active duty" Lt. Doesn't take offense to being called by his first name. The scenes where they are trying to fake the sergeant out by playing poker are pretty close to accurate,a lot of other stuff... Not so much. The new Lt and his getting screwed story sucks. Yeah he saw combat and got wounded. According to this story, that's it. He still had his IRR left. There are way more worse stories about that out there. I personally had to extend a year so I could deploy. Past my 20 years.I missed not deploying by a month, and yet I didn't try some massive trick to get out of it. I went. Anyway, there were possibilities in this movie, but a lot fell flat.

This film is actually really very good in places. It is set on an army base where units of the National Guard have been called up and are due to be deployed to an Iraqi war zone. Their erstwhile Lieutenant has used his daddy's political clout to get him a cushy transfer so he can stay Stateside with his fiancée. Meanwhile the unit's paramedic (Reyes)– whose young son has terminal cancer – has been told his permission to stay home has been revoked. What transpires is the efforts of the guys to do what they think is right in the face of military bureaucratic, indifference. We also have the story of the replacement Lieutenant and some of the back stories of the soldiers involved.Now I loved the premise and the first third of this film works extremely well. Then we start to get plot holes or contrivances and that is when it starts losing credibility. May be plot spoiler from here on in!! When Lt. Sefton runs off to the pay phone as his phone has been confiscated. In the previous scene Sgt Reyes was found by being called on his and phone while hiding in the truck and now he seems to have forgotten it is in his pocket. The security around this military base is a few guys with armbands on; No CCTV at all! I mean really, the protocols for prisoner control were never followed. Some of the fight scenes have all the 'blood' put on right at the end and some am dram fisty cuffs at that. These all occur towards the end and all empathy I had built up started to evaporate, so it went from being really good to OK and then please don't insult my intelligence – I have to say the acting and camera work are mostly good to excellent hence my overall rating.

This is a small budget independent film that delivers a meaningful storyline and suspense that kept me on the edge of my seat. The plot is believable and the main characters, while simple, have an interesting back-story.The soundtrack is especially solid and helps the film to build intensity. Additionally, it seems the director chose a monochromatic color/hue which gives the film a unique sense of reality (void of lots of distracting colors...not sure how else to explain it).If you are interested in watching films with substance and need a change from the big Hollywood blockbusters, I suggest giving Allegiance a try.

I am not sure why is this movie having so low grade. From my point of view it is pretty much underrated. The 'thriller' genre posted over here might be misleading considering the fact that this is more drama than a thriller. No big thrills, no tones of blood but pretty good drama development. Also pretty good casting except maybe for the main role which doesn't mean that the guy doesn't act well, just that he is not really made for the character he played. Good acting and pretty good directing. The director pretty much looks like someone who hasn't made many movies but is talented and understands very well the concept of the movie development generally speaking. I love the atypical way of developing the characters in his movie where he uses face mimics, glances and silence to express the nature of the dramatic situation rather than bunch of unnecessary words. So, I recommend this movie as pretty interesting and if the director Michael Connors ever read my comment, I want him to know that he should keep up the good work.