By Dan Skip Allen

“The Mosquito Bowl” is a new film directed by Peter Berg based on Buzz Bissinger’s Pulitzer Prize winning book “The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in WWII”. It’s not Berg’s first foray into war. He’s also directed “Battleship” in 2012 and “Lone Survivor” in 2013, the less said about “Battleship” the better, but “Lone Survivor “ was a fantastic war film about the war in Afghanistan. He started out as an actor, but his directing skills are what has got him noticed quite a bit in Hollywood. His latest war movie “The Mosquito Bowl” is going to get him a lot of acclaim critically and hopefully with audiences who see it when it comes out in theaters for a limited run and then Netflix.

This film has two distinct angles to it that eventually cross over into one another, the first being American football. The main cast of characters in the movie are all collegiate football players, John McLaughry (Nicholas Galitzine, The Masters of the Universe 2026), Bob Bauman (Bill Skarsgard, It: Chapter 1 & 2), Dave Schreiner (Tom Francis, Jay Kelly) and Tony Butkovich (Ray Nicholson, Novocaine) and later in the film George Murphy (Brent Comer). These men played for Brown, Wisconsin, Purdue, and Notre Dame, respectively. These men all excel at American football on the collegiate level until Pearl Harbor is bombed by the Japanese in 1941, and they all decide to enlist in the United States Marines Corp. 

They thought they were tough guys on the gridiron, but they have to be a hell of a lot tougher when they are in boot camp in Paris Island, South Carolina. There, they have a drill sergeant played by Pat McAfee, no stranger to the game of American football, as he was a punter at West Virginia and later for the Indianapolis Colts in the NFL. He is channeling his inner Army Lee Irmy with his performance as this loud mouth obnoxious drill instructor. They get a taste of what it takes to fight in a war, but it’s not exactly as they imagined fighting for their country would be. They end up beaching at Tarawa, an island in the Pacific, where the Japanese are embedded pretty deep.

This beaching scene rivals that of “Saving Private Ryan” as far as I’m concerned. It might be slightly better than that one. That scene took place at Omaha and Normandy beaches and involved fighting the Germans while this scene involved fighting the Japanese, who would rather die than be caught or surrender. It was a very bloody and violent sequence, as you’d imagine, from fighting any war. The colors were very muted greens, greys, and browns. The only time you saw bright colors was the red from characters being shot while approaching the Japanese stronghold or the jade blue of the Pacific waters and gold of the sand on the beach. Otherwise, this film looked pretty drab. That was the point, though, to show how miserable and ugly war can be. This scene was violent in every way imaginable. There is no other way to describe it.

Fighting an enemy that won’t give up isn’t easy for any army, let alone the United States Marine Corp, which is the best soldiers America produces. This uphill battle would get to anybody, so it’s understandable that the tension between soldiers would get to a boiling point. As much as the heat and humidity bothered these men, they also bothered each other. Also, the mosquitos were a pain. This led to the famous football game in the sand. It was a way to build morale amongst the different groups of marines, but it stood for something even more important than that. It gave America something to listen to back home. It helped create a rallying cry for the final fight in Okinawa. This game dubbed “The Mosquito Bowl” was a memorable one for all involved and those who listened to it on the radio back home. 

Some of these actors are relatively new, but a couple of them are names most viewers may have heard of in movies from the past year or two. Galitzine, for instance, has been in a couple of recent films from Amazon/MGM. The aforementioned “Masters of the Universe “ and “The Sheep Detectives “. Both are vastly different from this film. In those, there was a small amount of humor thrown in. Here, there is no humor. Berg takes this assignment very seriously. Galitzine also gives a very serious and heartfelt performance. You can tell this situation weighs heavily on him and his family back at home. I liked him in the other two movies he was in earlier this year, but he’s on a whole new level here. He gives the best performance of his young career as this great athletic leader on the gridiron turned leader of men in the sand on a tropical battlefield. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Another familiar face is that of Bill Skarsgard. Well most of the time his face is covered in films like “Nosferatu”, the “It” films, and the remake of the “Crow”. But lately, he’s had some roles where his face wasn’t covered, such as “Dead Man’s Wire”, and “Locked. Here, his face is shown in full view as he played a hard-nosed linebacker turned hard-nosed soldier. As Bauman, he bridges the gap between his enemies on the football field and now his allies in the jungles of war. He has a lighthearted spirit about him, but he’s a tough soldier who doesn’t give in to his Japanese counterparts. Even faced with near death on a couple of occasions. He was a joy to watch on screen in the joyless scenario he was involved in called war.

Besides the first beaching scene, there was another war scene, and that was the battle of Guatta Canal and Okinawa. These were two pretty brutal sequences that Berg shot, and all of these men were involved in. The choreography and gun fighting that went into these scenes was jaw dropping for me. I’ve seen my share of war films from the Vietnam War, in “Apocalypse Now” to the battle of 300 the Spartans, in “300” and everything in-between.These scenes are some of the best I’ve ever seen shot on film. I know that’s saying a lot, but it’s how I felt after watching this movie. They were brutal, bloody, and violent in the best possible way. I genuinely felt bad for every soldier American and Japanese who died at some point or another in this film. It was that gruesome to watch. I truly believe these war sequences rivaled that of “Saving Private Ryan” in the best way imaginable. People will be blown away by how realistic these scenes are.

I could go on and on about “The Mosquito Bowl” from the great football sequences at the beginning of the film to the war scenes all the way through this movie. Berg understood the assignment and passed with flying colors. He knows how to shoot war scenes, but from his time on “Friday Night Lights” he also knows how to shoot football scenes. With the help of cinematographer Jacques Joufrett, he was able to make this movie look drab and ugly. The muted colors helped create a look of war and the time period that I can agree with 100 %. This is how the world looked, not all colorful and beautiful. War is ugly and dirty and grimy. Now, the jade blue ocean and gold sand were another story. Also, the blood red stood out a lot. The cinematography of this movie was incredible. 

“The Mosquito Bowl” is a crowning achievement for all involved. From Berg, who did an amazing job with the direction, to Joufrett, the cinematographer to the cast, including Galitzine, Skarsgard, Nicholson, Francis, and McAfee. They were all terrific in their respective roles. This was another example of a WWII story I wasn’t familiar with before watching the film, but I was so glad I got to see this movie. I’m glad I now know of this story. I was literally wowed when I was walking out of the theater after watching this film. That’s how much I was blown away by what I had just seen. This is going to go down as the best film from Berg’s filmography, and he’ll get more movies to direct after this for sure. Hopefully, this movie translates to award buzz come next year’s awards season.  It is well deserving of any and all accolades it can get. This is an incredible film all the way around.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 stars