When Trumpets Fade
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
When Trumpets Fade is a television film made in 1998 and directed by John Irvin.
[edit] Overview
This film portrays the actions of an American private David Manning (Ron Eldard) during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, the battle between the United States Army and the German Wehrmacht which took place from 1944-1945 on the Western Front (World War II).
Private Manning is a reluctant hero and is initially shown as a bit of a shirker - "just doing enough to stay out of trouble", according to another character. Through the sheer bloodiness of the Hurtgen battles, Manning is left as the sole survivor of his unit and subsequently promoted to sergeant. He believes he is unqualified for the position, but his CO thinks otherwise. Manning then tries to back out of responsibility by asking to be filed on a Section 8 (mentally unfit due to combat stress) but is refused. Manning finds himself in charge of replacements, a prospect he is less than thrilled with. Eventually he accepts his responsibilities and his position in the scheme of things.
After going on patrol with his platoon, his captain comes to him with a suicidal mission requiring volunteers, and bargains with Manning that he will be authorized to transfer to the rear if he volunteers for the mission with some of his men. While succeeding in the mission, one of his men lose control over himself and decides to run. Realising everybody will run if he doesn't do anything, he shoots the soldier with his handgun, hitting one of the flamethrower gas bottle the soldier is carrying in his back, which causes it to explode and burns to death the soldier. While the rest of the men finds his conduct horrible and uncalled for, they stop running and assault the position where the two 88mm cannons are located, destroying them in the process.
Meanwhile, the rest of his section assaults a bridge, suffering horrendous casualties and getting shelled by german tanks afterwards. In the assault, Manning's lieutenant and superior officer loses control over himself when a sergent gives him lots of dogtags from dead soldiers. When asked about the amount of casualties by his major, he tries to hit the major, crying and clearly unfit to command. The major has no other choice than to promote Manning to lieutenant, learning in the process that his section is going to assault german positions again.
After an intercation with what seems like another veteran who accuses Manning of shooting his men only to stay alive, the other private who survived the raid on the 88 cannons defends his conduct by acknowledging the fact that everybody was ready to run instead of fighting.
Manning devises a plan to destroy the germans tanks the night before the assault : if they don't, he knows that the whole section is in jeopardy. He bravely leads three of his man in the raid on the german tanks, mainly to spite those officers who demand the impossible while staying out of the firing line themselves. The operation costs the lives of his men except one, the same who survived the raid on the 88mm guns, while Manning gets hit in the chest. The film closes with Manning, wounded, being carried back to the American lines by the now battle-hardened replacement; a mirror image of his carrying back a wounded comrade at the opening of the film.
The overall point the film makes is that not everyone who took part in World War II was stereotypical hero material; in fact, Manning's role is distinctly one of an anti-hero, somebody ordinary pushed into extraordinary circumstances.
