Great war-movie - in the way that it's an ANTI war-movie. Based on Andy McNab's memoir, Bravo Two Zero is the story of the eight man SAS team who, during. Bravo Two Zero review by Clay B - A entertaining and shoking war film well done and Sean Bean always does a great preformance. I have said this many times but the British Cinafilm has over four million movie reviews and counting.
Britain's government has spent five years trying to gag Mike Coburn. His account of an SAS mission that went wrong is more about truth than heroics, reports Nick Ryan. Bravo Two Zero. For many people those three words conjure up the image of the soldier hero: the special-forces trooper - the kind of cool-minded killer who could go anywhere and seemingly do just about anything. It was the call sign for a British Special Air Service (SAS) patrol during a mission in the 1991 Gulf War that was 'compromised' behind enemy lines.
Three of the eight-man team were killed, and four captured and tortured, while trying to destroy Scud missile launchers in north-west Iraq. One managed to escape by foot across the desert into Syria. For Andy McNab, the patrol's leader, and Chris Ryan, the soldier who escaped - both names are pseudonyms - the military blunders led, ultimately, to remarkable financial success. Bravo Two Zero, McNab's lionised account of the mission, which was published in 1993, sold millions of copies and launched a slew of copycats. Ryan followed with his story, entitled The One That Got Away. Vetted and approved by Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD), the books have become an almost sacred part of British military and public myth. Even now posters on the London Underground proclaim the virtues of McNab's latest novel, while Ryan has been busy fronting a BBC television series and promoting an exercise guide.
For some, though, the memories of that time refuse to die. For the family of the late Sergeant Vince Phillips in particular, who have had to live with his vilification, particularly in Ryan's book, for 'compromising' the patrol by failing to kill a young goatherd and for seeming to 'give up' after they were split and the men tired.
Others, too, have been haunted by such memories: those who have so far kept silent. 'Did you like the bit about us blowing up all those tanks?' The words are friendly enough, but the eyes are flat, the irony and sarcasm clear in the New Zealander's voice. He is joking about previous Bravo Two Zero accounts as we sit in an almost unbearably hot London apartment. 'I've just got in from Asia,' says the former SAS trooper, who uses the pen name Mike Coburn, by way of explaining the heat, as he offers a glass of wine and settles barefoot on the sofa. Like many former SAS men Coburn is now a security consultant.
He seems no Rambo. About average height, stocky, with dark hair and open features, he served first in his native New Zealand SAS - 'I took to it like a duck to water' - before treading an 'unofficial' path to join the mother regiment in England. He was seeking some real action, and Bravo Two Zero was his first operational mission. Aside from a clear intelligence, there is little that would distinguish him from the man in the street. Yet if you believe the British government he is a dangerous person indeed. 'Oh, if bin Laden wasn't around I'd be enemy number one,' he says.
'I've no doubt about it. The way they've gone after me over the years is amazing.' Coburn's crime has been to write a powerful account of what he says happened during Bravo Two Zero. Soldier Five, his book, is ostensibly a straightforward, albeit absorbing tale of one man's ordeal during a mission that went badly wrong. From the outset, however, it's clear that Coburn's version of events (written with another patrol member, an Australian known simply as Mal) is different from previous accounts: he is captured, shot and tortured, but there is none of the heroics of killing the enemy that feature in McNab and Ryan's work.
His is a more sombre, seemingly truthful story, which also differs markedly over the role and fate of the late Vince Phillips. 'His brother had a nervous breakdown and his father died a broken man as a result of what happened to Vince,' Coburn says. 'People were quite happy to lay the blame with somebody they knew couldn't answer.' Coburn is withering about the leadership and intelligence failures that led the team to be dumped on a main supply route, almost on top of their target, where they were soon spotted. With no vehicles, they then discovered that none of their communications equipment was working. Not only that, they had also been given the wrong escape route and were then left as expendable once the higher-ups knew something was wrong. Forced to retreat on foot, they became split up and were killed or captured as they made for the Syrian border.
Attempts at rescue were fatally delayed. Shades of Blackadder Goes Forth ensue when the surviving members are told that their commanding officer has graciously decided not to have them court-martialled. Such a chain of failures, not to mention the abandonment of all the usual back-up procedures, is unprecedented, argues Coburn, and is one of his main motivations for writing the book. 'I think the final catalyst was when I was speaking to a former SAS officer who'd overheard a conversation between two commanding officers. They were discussing the call for the patrol to be extracted and classed that as premature.
That decision, basically, cost the lives of three men.' But aren't you supposed to be expendable? Isn't that the law of the special forces? 'There's always an element that you may have to sort out yourself in the end,' he replies, 'but for people to turn back at headquarters and say they're not even going to try anyway, well that's just not acceptable in any way, shape or form. If you're going to put people in harm's way, you've got a duty to do your utmost to get them back.
And if you're not, you've got to tell them.' 'Emotionally, financially, it's been a very difficult five years, no doubt about it,' says Coburn.
'Perhaps weaker relationships wouldn't have survived. It's very stressful. Of course, in theory this will be the last ever book by an SAS insider that will come out. Because no guy since 1996 who signed that contract can write a book unless the MoD allows them to do it.'
As I get ready to leave, he fixes me with that direct gaze and adds: 'You know, this is another thing: Bravo Two Zero is a piece of insignificant military history. The controversy that surrounds it is well out of proportion to the deed. I was involved in a lot more operations that were more significant and more rewarding.
As I said before, I find it remarkable that it actually came to this.' Soldier Five: The Real Truth About The Bravo Two Zero Mission is published by Mainstream Publishing, £17.99 in UK Nick Ryan is creative producer of the new BBC drama England Expects.
Director Cast list Sean Bean. Andy McNab Steve Nicolson. Dinger Rick Warden. Tony Richard Graham. Mark Ian Curtis. Baz Jamie Bartlett. Ray Robert Hobbs. Stan Ron Senior Jr. Pete Robert Whitehead. Iraqi Colonel Credits Writing Credits: Troy Kennedy-Martin (adaptation), Andy McNab (book) Synopsis Based on the real life of Sergeant Andy McNab, this film is set during the Persian Gulf War. It follows an SAS Patrol’s journey deep through Iraqi territory; their mission, “Bravo Two Zero”, is to sever strategic communication lines and dispose the scud missile launchers residing in Saddam Hussein’s arsenal. However, when communications are cut, the team finds that they are surrounded by Saddam’s forces after being discovered by a shepherd. Their sole hope is to risk capture and torture as they set on their desperate 185-kilometer run to the Syrian border. Concerning the SAS team the film is based on, out of the eight operatives sent, only five lived to receive their decorations.
Reviews Christopher Null, Contactmusic.com (online magazine) Currentfilm, Currentfilm.com (reviews website) Dragan Antulov, IMDB Reviews (user review) Nix, Beyond Hollywood (website) Robert Pardi, TV Guide (online magazine) Steve Rhodes, IMDB Reviews (user review) Academic Articles: “Bravo Two Zero Survivor Launches a New Thriller.” Bath Chronicle: 65. November 8 2007. Coleman, Andrew. “Military Matters.” Australia & World Affairs.29 (1996): 63. Crampton, Robert.
“Gulf War Expose.” World Press Review 41.12 (1994): 50. Needham, Jenny. “Last Night’s TV – Discovering the Truth Behind Bravo Two Zero.” Northern Echo: 09.
May 21, 2002 2002. ABI/INFORM Complete. O’Sullivan, Janet. “Who Dares Whinges: Duress, Undue Influence and the SAS.” The Cambridge Law Journal 62.3 (2003): 554-6. Vyvyan, Charles. “THE REAL BRAVO TWO ZERO (Book).” TLS.5182 (2002): 32.
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