It's 1916 on the western front. The battle has stalemated by trench warfare. Australian miner Oliver Woodward is the new commander of an Australian tunnel platoon. He was courting 16 year old Marjorie Waddell, 10 years his junior, when he joined the new mine wars. The underground world is a rarely seen battlefield of intense paranoia and constant death.In many ways, this world reminds me of a wartime submarine. There is also plenty trench warfare and above-ground fighting. It would be great to have more delineated characters. A lot of time is spent on Woodward with his flashbacks. Brendan Cowell plays it with stoic heroism. The others tend to blend together. This is a compelling world of combat and takes the fighting to different places.

I give it a 6. I am a huge war movie fan. I love war movies, and when I read a few reviews and the synopsis I truly wanted to like this movie. Word War I movies are few and far between. That being said, I found this one rather dull.I think if this movie had been 20 years ago I would have loved it. Because it was made in 2010, it failed to really grab my attention. I didn't think it was horrible and I surely have seen worse war movies, but Since Speilbergs "Saving Private Ryan" stepped up the game for the genre, movies like this just don't fit the bill anymore.The acting was fine. There were some good scenes that gave a bit of the claustrophobic sense, but again, as far as the genre go these days its not enough, and you still have a sense of watching a story instead of being there witnessing the story.

I have been researching my grandfather, Lieutenant Leonard Langdale Wrathall. He was awarded a Military Cross for removing an enemy road mine from a spot which was under heavy direct machine-gun fire. On the 3rd of October, 1918 in the vicinity of Estees and Ramicourt, he was engaged in the reconnaissance of roads captured during the advance. He examined roads up to our front line, and in many cases beyond it, and during the whole of both days worked under heavy shell and machine gun fire. Leonard enlisted in the the Australian forces in OCt 1915 as a geologist; his roll title was No 1 Mining Corps -2 and 3 Reinforcements. He spent 4 years in the army gaining the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the Australian Tunnelling Corps and being concerned in the operations which led to the blowing up of Hill 60. I shall look forward to watching the movie and to see the experiences that they endured.

The over enthusiasm from 99% of the Australian viewers grading this film so highly is fundamental as to why Australian film making is not progressing in the right direction. Criticisms such as "better than Saving Private Ryan", really do not help portray the film in the correct light. And is probably why Australian film makers are falling behind similar counterparts in Europe, who can make moving films with correct sound underscores. Not to say this is a bad film in the slightest, just not the hyped up best Aussie War movie ever category it is being portrayed into. I think without the hype you would leave the cinema quite satisfied and overall it is well made and acted, but lets you down simultaneously. I give it a 4 simply because i went in expecting so much, and came out feeling every need from the film not being met.