Straight Into Darkness (2004)

***Arty, surreal indie about wandering the Euro wasteland in the closing days of WW2*** Sometime after the Battle of the Bulge in Western Europe, two lost American deserters journey the ruined landscape: Losey (Ryan Francis) is a sensitive man haunted by memories while Deming (Scott MacDonald) is a half-psycho brute. They are eventually forced to make a stand with a group of orphans and a skeptical French couple (David Warner & Linda Thorson). Written & directed by Jeff Burr, "Straight into Darkness" (2004) is a low-budget indie, (financed mostly by Burr). You can tell this immediately in the opening credits, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep watching, but I’m glad I did because the filmmaking is otherwise professional and the cast rose to the challenge. The tone is melancholic and surreal. To get a good picture, imagine the arty style of “The Thin Red Line” (1998) and the setting of “When Trumpets Fade” (1998), but on a smaller budget, mixed with the plot of a few soldiers wandering the war-ridden landscape à la “Anzio” (1968) and “Saving Private Ryan” (1998). Low budget indie or not, “Straight into Darkness” is deep, moody, brooding and memorable. The film runs 1 hour, 35 minutes and took two years to make, shot in Romania; Mammoth Mountain, California; and Chattanooga, Tennessee. GRADE: B