this little gem of a movie is fairly unknown.it tells the story of a World War II battle that is pretty much forgotten(but no less important)and overshadowed by other more famous battles.it's a gritty movie,with a rough unpolished look to it.there no big name superstars here either.this film has a more intimate personal feel to than many other war movies.the acting is first rate all around here,but Martin Donovan and Dwight Yoakam are real standouts.this movie is well worth the watch in my opinion.just like the battle it depicts,it may have been overshadowed by other war pictures with bigger budgets and bigger names,but this one is no less important.for me,When Trumpets Fade is a 9/10

This movie portrays the common soldier in a very different light than many other war movies. In so called "War Epics", the soldiers are all courageous and heroic, willing to do anything to fight the enemy and save Europe. Their is perhaps one soldier in the squad who is a coward, the one who stands out compared to his allies bravery. But in this movie, the main character is a coward, or at least he thinks he is. He doesn't want to fight, and does whatever he can to save his skin. But when the Commander reads the Captain's report about Manning, he is right when he describes his innate ability to lead and his battlefield six sense. He shoots one of his own soldiers in the back, but by doing so he stops his squad from retreating and they successfully destroy their objective, an artillery gun, and save the lives of many other soldiers. This is a new, refreshing spin on the common soldier, and is perhaps more realistic than other views that are presented. The only detractor from the film is the weak music, which is thin and distracts one from enjoying the otherwise superb war movie.

Movie follows Pvt. David Manning, in the Hurtgon Forrest Battle, were over 24,000 people died. After his whole squad is killed he is promoted to sergeant, and leads a group of new recruits to take out some 88-mm guns. After the mission he is again promoted to the rank of lieutenant. During this whole time he is trying to leave the army by saying he is mentally unstable. This movie shows how stupid war and orders can be. The solders in this movie are not driven by patriotism or loyalty, but by survival. The soldiers are moved by the instinct of survival, and not by patriotism like other movies usually present. The action scenes are a little over the top. The explosions are so over the top, you don't need a huge fiery explosion, with fireworks and all the tnt in the world to show one explosion. It just was not necessary. Soldiers are shown as lonely angry people and do not like each other, like other war movies.

At the beginning of the movie was are shown that Manning is a selfish soldier who isn't very loyal to his squad. Manning is shown to have excellent natural skills and is promoted for them even though he doesn't want to be promoted. In other war movies American soldiers are shown to have loyalty and bravery. During this miserable time all soldiers didn't act this way they were all wanting to return home without fighting. In the battles in the movie the U.S. is extremely outnumbered, don't have any advantages and is getting pounded by artillery and tanks. Sanderson in the beginning is a coward who is scarred of fighting. At the end Sanderson becomes a brave soldier and is very effective in the renegade assault. Once Manning is promoted he shows bravery and loyalty as he leads his troops on a mission to take out the tanks and artillery. Manning gave his life at the battle and Sanderson showed the same act as Manning did in the opening scene. Overall I give this movie a 9 out of ten. It showed how each soldier's life changed after experiencing the misery at the battle. One complaint was the music in the movie is didn't fit the movie. It sounded like peter and the wolf the music should be more fitting to the time that the movie was made.