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In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I've given this film a good rating because, based as it is on a set of particular facts, it doesn't fit into the usual war-film mold. It may be so mainly by default, but that doesn't make it any less original. Here's the mold. A small group of soldiers sets out on a difficult mission. There are fire fights. Some of the men die. The enemy is faceless. The mission is successfully completed. If they are captured, they escape. If the patrol was cocky at the start, they return chastened. That template doesn't apply here.In this film, the impression one gets is that the mission of the British patrol was only partly completed, since their presence was discovered and they had to leave their observation post under fire. In trying to reach the safety of the Syrian border the eight men lose each other. And Andy MacNab (Sean Bean) is captured by Iraqis. The second half of the film has us watching his suffering in a special prison. The Iraqis aren't entirely faceless either. They beat hell out of MacNab but not before showing us some of the reasons for the Iraqi's rage. An elderly man, weeping operatically, uncovers the mutilated body of his son, one of the Iraqi soldiers killed during a fire fight, before throwing himself on a British prisoner and feebly squeezing and pinching his face. Later we learn that the patrol has killed more than a hundred Iraqis and put another hundred in the hospital. The torture MacNab and the two other members of his patrol undergo is convincing without being overly dwelt on. He spends most of his time manacled, stripped, and blindfolded. A dentist pulls out one of MacNab's teeth. But the most telling degradation is when MacNab is forced to clean out a primitive toilet that has become clogged, using only his bare hands, and when finished, he is made to lick his hands clean. A viewer might ask if this is really "torture", and the answer might well be, "not according to the definition now employed by the US government, since there is no pain and no question of organ failure." Unlike most fictional war stories, the three British prisoners don't escape. Moreover, MacNab tells his captors what they want to know about his unit and its mission, distributing little misleading lies here and there to diminish the value of the information. Of course MacNab protests the Iraqi treatment of him and his two colleagues because it isn't permitted by the Geneva Convention. His captor deals him a blow and adds, "We are not in Geneva." MacNab and four others out of the eight-man patrol manage to reach home through the offices of the Red Cross. "War is barbaric," MacNab muses, but he holds little ill will against his torturers since they were just doing their jobs. He does, however, dislike the Iraqis who seemed to enjoy inflicting pain, and if he met one of them on the street, he would probably slug him. At least I THINK that's what he thought. The working-class accents and the slang were so thick that I was unable to understand some of the exchanges.MacNab is pretty philosophical about his experiences, and not at all chastened or brutalized. Naturally war is barbaric, but MacNab knew that going in, and he has no intention of giving up the profession of arms. He doesn't seem to have any real enemies, doesn't hate anybody, and surely isn't anxious to be captured and tortured again, but what the hell, the army has given him a chance to be all he can be! In the usual war movie, our side almost always wins, sometimes at great sacrifice. Here, the conflict kind of peters out, as great historical events have a way of doing. That may or may not make for a satisfying narrative, but it does resemble life a little more closely.

While it is refreshing to see a non-American version of the Gulf War, Bravo Two Zero is a clumsy and crude attempt that fails in holding your interest at almost all times, mostly because it does not even try to be serious. Most of the action scenes are so lackluster it's not even funny.It appears that this UK production must have had such a low budget when making the film that they had to substitute key scenes with real-life footage. For example, the shot of the men leaving their families and taking off to the Middle East on a plane looks like some genius sneaked up on the landing runway of an airport and started filming a random passenger flight with a camcorder. Then they just decided to put this in the film. Also, in spite of this being a WAR movie, it is obvious that the production never used any real fighter aircrafts, but again, put in some random footage from a Gulf War documentary to pass off as their own. I found all of this totally hysterical and distracting.So, Bravo Two Zero is basically like one of those re-enacted documentaries used for educational purposes. It has all the elements: cut-rate cinematography, hammy acting, "home-made" feel and seemingly unknown actors. Sean Bean was in it, however, as the lead role of Andy McNabb. Bravo Two Zero actually improves considerably when it moves away from the cheesy battle scenes and into a more character-driven mode as the soldiers are held captive in Iraq. Some of the torture-scenes are surprisingly realistic. Bean is pretty much why I watched this film but it should be obvious to the viewer that this is simply pretty laughable. 3/10

In 'Eye of the Storm' by Peter Ratcliffe DCM (who was the Regimental Sergeant Major of the SAS during the Bravo Two Zero incident), he explains how the CO and he thought that Bravo Two Zero team should've taken in a Land Rover, yet 'Andy McNab' and his team disagreed and decided to take in 150 pound packs on their back and trek it in.'McNab' felt that it was too easy to be spotted by aircraft if they were in a Land Rover rather than if they walked in because the terrain was rather flat. Ratcliffe and the CO believed that the Land Rover would give them a better means of escape... seems like they were right.McNab seems to have glorified himself in his book and in one section of the text it reads that Ratcliffe only briefly wished him good luck and safe trip.But for this one, you'll have to make up your mind for yourself...

I first saw a documentary on the Discovery channel about the mission that is portrayed in this movie. I know a lot about the history of the Gulf War but I had never heard about this particular mission. I was completely fascinated as to what these soldiers went through and how they managed to deal with their incredible situation.Then by pure coincidence, about a week later I stumbled across this movie on cable. The movie dramatized the mission slightly and gave it a very personal feeling, which is captured wonderfully by the actors portraying the soldiers. The movie gives a very real sense of the comradery, dedication, and professionalism that Special Forces troops exhibit. I would definitely recommend this movie if you have a fascination or appreciation for the military.