I just finished watching this and while it's not the worst war movie ever made it's not the best either. The novel thing about this movie is the non-stop linear action. It's a style that's rarely been done before and in this movie they make it work. Most of the movie is suspense, muck, mud, mire and fear and this movie does a good job of portraying the squalor of WW1 trench life.

For all that though there's surprisingly little action. The long lulls in between action do get almost dull and when the action happens the payoff isn't enough for putting up with the rest of it.

The movie rates high for telling a story seldom told in the 21st century, that of the first world war - a war almost forgotten and practically eclipsed by the second. Other than that though, I can think of the far superior remake of "All quiet on the western front" starring Richard Thomas from 1979 that tells the story much better than this, really minimalist war film.