Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Please don't spend money on this.

Let's be realistic.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

In a day and age when theatrical releases leave one wanting, this TV movie Delivers.When Trumpets Fade tells the story of Manning (Ron Eldard), a man who has seen more than his share of hell and wants more of it. But war is a jealous mistress and won't let him go so easily. While Private Manning, then Sergeant Manning, then eventually Lt. Manning would just like to go home, he's continually called upon to lead others into battle in one of the most horrific events of WWII.This being a TV movie one hardly expects that there was a huge production budget. Yet John Irvin (Hamburger Hill), working from a brilliant screenplay by W.W. Vought, directs and brilliant cast of familiar, if not A-List faces through an incredibly moving and gripping tale.Working with the elegant natural landscape, production designer László Rajk makes the past come alive in the here and now. While cinematographer Thomas Burstyn catches the action and the drama like he's working with a blockbuster budget. In all aspects When Trumpets Fade stands proudly among the best war movies ever made. A near perfect execution.

A film that over reaches itself in ambition despite having a good Director, John "Hamburger Hill" Irven at the helm, and a good story to work with, the battle of Hurtgen Forest which preceded the Battle of the Bulge. However two obstacles become insurmountable, a puny budget, and a terrible script.Made in 1998, it attempts to be gritty and realistic, but the dialogue does not feel contemporary, and the action sequences are unconvincing with close up gore shots used to try to compensate. The battle scenes cannot match Saving Private Ryan, nor the epic sweep of The Thin Red Line. Irven is simply not good enough to reprise Kubrick's success with similar limitations in Full Metal Jacket.Ultimately the film does not go anywhere. The frailties of men in battle, once shown, dull after a while. The failings in US Command strategy are only hinted at. Combine a fuzzy story and bad dialogue and you have a formula for creating characters which are half formed and unlikeable, which is what we have here.When you make a film fifty years after the event it really needs to say something, to shed some light on a hitherto unilluminated corner – this does neither.

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

When Trumpets Fade is a very decent war movie, but the fight scenes seem a tad bit fake. They are fighting a battle in Hurtgen Forest at the border of Belgium that seems to be impossible to win, and the platoon attempts many pushes against the German line with no avail. The main obstacle for the US troops is the tanks and flak 88 guns that their artillery cant take out. The newly appointed Sergeant Manning is given a squad of 4 men and ordered to go and take out the flak guns across from the bridge. The movie shows the difficulties and mental stress that comes with leading in war, and how sometimes you have to go to drastic measures to maintain control of the situation. This film is a great tribute to the remembrance of a very important battle that most people don't know about. I recommend it to everyone and you should all learn to love SANDERSON!!!