The Great War

Ron Perlman,Billy Zane

During the last days of the Great War (july 28th 1914 to Nov 11th 1918), a group of U.S. soldiers are sent behind enemy lines to rescue a lost platoon. Just even a few hours before the ceasefire, the commanders on both sides continued to launch offensives in a bid to capture territory. Captain William Rivers (Bates Wilder) is US army and leads one such attempt on German lines with disastrous results and his entire unit wiped out, with few survivors.Rivers channels his resources such as Private Cardinni (Edgar Damatian) and Pinchelli (Judah McFadden) to flank the German trenches and kill their troops and machine guns from behind. But this modest gain comes at a huge cost. Rivers's unit had contact with some black soldiers during their battle as well. But now the black soldiers have a different problem. They are far behind enemy lines and their supply routes are cut off.This news (that a unit of colored soldiers is cut off behind enemy lines) reaches Colonel Jack Morrison (Billy Zane) at Chaumont (US Army HQ) on 9th Nov. He raises the issue with General Pershing (Ron Perlman), who reckons that the unit will come under heavy German attack as they would want their position back before the ceasefire. Pershing wants to be seen as positive towards colored men and authorizes a support mission.The orders flow down to Rivers that he has to lead his platoon to rescue the blacks. He resists as his platoon don't get along well with colored men. Rivers takes with him Cardinni, Pinchelli, Corporal Anson Kirby (Andrew Stecker) and O'Malley (Cody Fleury). Jenkins (Eric m. Johnson) is a colored radioman in the battalion in which Rivers serves and volunteers for the rescue mission. Captain Hooker (Wade Everett) is the battalion commander and is actively hostile to niggers. He discourages Rivers from the rescue mission. Pvt. John Cain (Hiram A. Murray) is another colored soldier in Hooker's unit who is re-assigned to Rivers as his runner.Rivers and his men start towards the last known location of the colored unit. They encounter Mary (Jordan McFadden), who is a nurse with the red cross. She takes Rivers and Cain to a few wounded soldiers from the same unit. Joseph Le'Fluer (Leonard Searcy) tells Cain that the remaining men are dug up on top of a hill number 473. on the way they hook up with Captain A.J. Stevens (Jeremy Michael Pereira) who confirms that the colored unit is on hill 473, but Germans have been moving artillery and 3 battalions in front of the hill all day. He reckons the Germans will take the hill before the war ends. As the unit presses forward a stray grenade kills Pinchelli. The unit revolts against sacrificing good men to save niggers, but Rivers stands firm and says that he will follow orders but wont force others to do the same. The unit presses on.They finally find the colored unit and Rivers speaks to CO Sgt Perry. Rivers relays his orders to rescue the unit, but Perry and his men want to hold on to the hill which they sacrificed many (27) good men for. Rivers tells him about the impending German assault on the hill and their desperation to get it back before the war ends. But Perry is firm. Rivers convinces his men to stay and defend the hill, so they can bring the colored boys back and complete their orders.RIvers makes a plan to defend the hill against superior German forces. A German captain approaches Rivers and asks him to surrender, but Rivers declines. The German assures that their attack will commence at dawn. Rivers takes advantage of this and launches a sneak attack in the evening itself, forcing the German hand and inducing their attack before they are fully re-grouped. The US army inflicts heavy casualties on the Germans, but deplete their ammunition in the process. Rivers dies eventually from a bullet wound. But he succeeds in defending the hill till 11 am on 11th Nov 1918. The war is over.