User reviews

The whole time I watched this film, there wasn't really a moment that I felt invested in it. You couldn't sympathise for a single character besides the protagonist. As soon as you met one character, they would either die or become irrelevant to the story. I understand that this film is based on a true story. However, if you have to show in the opening credits that you practically did everything to make the film (directing, producing, etc.) to the audience watching. It probably isn't going to be that good of a film. The story itself was a bit interesting, but I wouldn't call this film a must see.

Why make yet another below average war movie? Why? I started watching it anyway and quickly noticed this was a cheap copycat, an inferior wannabe...

The bad: what's a war movie without spectacular fighting scenes? What? Well, not much! This movie just fails to ever become truly gripping or thrilling.

Beware: this is more a slowburning portrayal of soldiers having to endure the trenches than it is a tough war movie. But even at the dramatic scenes this move fails full stop. The actors are below average and so are their acting performances.

It isnt a terrible B-movie, they tried to make the best of the mediocre actors and the lack of money for photography and special effects. But in the end this movie is just going through the motions of yet another below average boring "war" movie...

I gave this movie a 6/10 just.

It's harmless and tells the story of war many others have told.

It felt lazy and miss directed. The acting seemed very wooden, however this could have been due to the miss direction.

The trenches did not look real and the cinematography was average at best.

This Movie never got me gripped into believing I was at war with them. I Simply was not bothered and felt no emotion for any of the characters.

Their was no main story line or historical battles, just skipping through years at an accelerated speed.

Looking past the negatives, I love a WW1 movie and I preferred to have watched it rather than not.

Give it a go on Netflix or prime l, certainly not Cinema quality.

This movie feels cheap. I really hope it was, because if it wasn't someone screwed up big time. It starts in WA and the war scenes look like someone's dad got his excavator and dug some trenches and built some retaing walls in WA. Its looks ridiculous. They've taken every lame war cliche in the book and shoehorned it into the script but the actors deliver their lines like they are school kids. Barely one looks, acts or moves like they've done any soldiering. It's hard to watch. It comes off like a high school kids media project. Not worthy of the ANZACS. If your going to make an Aussie war movie do it right...

This may not be an epic war movie but it's an important story about how young and naive our young soldiers were when they signed up for WW1.

It tells the story of young man conflicted between loyalty to his family sheep station and his mates volunteering for the war.

The conditions these kids fought under were appalling but the fought well and honourably.

There have been lots of war movies but most are American and about heroes....this one is about Aussie kids.

It was not the best movie but if you think about the era, 1916, and the sacrifices these soldiers made in a foreign country under terrible conditions, it's told well.

I was very excited for this film and for more Australian war films to be made, but I almost walked out numerous times. There is no story, no character development, the sets never change, the dialogue was abysmal and of course it is so far beyond historically inaccurate. The trenches are like 5 feet deep and always look muddy and in a terrible state, the uniforms were not put together by someone who knows the period, the medical conditions are laughably wrong and the battle scenes are farcical. This is a low budget film that thinks it is a high budget film in scope, trying to cover multiple years of the war instead of just focusing on a small time frame and a small group of characters, and because of that this apparent $9m film feels like it was made for about $50,000. Everything is wrong and it feels wrong.

I saw this movie today and it wasn't bad at all.

I'm a fan of war movies, more like war movies based on true stories, and I can't say I was disappointed watching this.

It's not a movie that people are used to seeing and I'm talking about the fact that it's not an action movie with a lot of battles and more. It's actually a kind of drama film where you can see what young Australians were dealing with in the First World War, what a big problem the equipment in the trenches was and the fear that young people went into.

I enjoyed it, it was, again, a decent film and I learned a few things about ANZAC and for some newbie actors and a young producer with 10 million dollars. Budget and a production with over 1000 people, it was a great job.

While I had never heard about this 2024 war movie titled "Before Dawn", I must admit that I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch it on account of it being a war movie.

However, writers Jordon Prince-Wright and Jarrad Russell delivered a slow paced movie, so very, very slow. You have to sit through more than 60 minutes of the movie where nothing worthwhile really happens. So more than half of the movie was squandered on setting the stage and establishing characters, but not really succeeding in any great way of doing so. And that just didn't really pan out all that well in terms of providing proper entertainment for me.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but I will say that the acting performances were fair, despite the fact that the movie's script failed to get off to a proper running start.

Visually then "Before Dawn" was good, it definitely looked and felt like a war movie. Though it was a bit odd why all the trenches were so shallow that the soldiers had to constantly hunch over in order to move without being shot. There were some nice attention to details, and the uniforms were good.

I am sure that diehard war movie fans will enjoy "Before Dawn" a lot more than I did, especially if you don't mind a slow paced narrative that focuses on establishing characters.

While I managed to sit through 100 minutes that the movie ran for, director Jordon Prince-Wright didn't really manage to entertain me all that much. And this is definitely not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. I have to admit that I was definitely expecting a bit more action from a movie such as this, and it felt like it was a squandered opportunity to show some great trench warfare on the screen.

My rating of "Before Dawn" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars.

I mainly decided to watch this because my husband is a big fan of war movies. I enjoy them too but they need to be gripping.

Prior to watching this film we have enjoyed many a fantastic war movie.

We both struggled so much with this film that we turned it off after around 40 minutes.

The character development was weak, and they continually jumped from the time in the trenches back to Australia far too frequently and not at all skilfully.

We found the acting was mediocre at best.

We also found the language used was probably not that historically accurate for that time period.

Very disappointing effort.

Made locally near Esperance in Western Australia.

Amazingly realistic portrail of an important time in Australian history.

Brought my husband's grandfather's stories to life.

This is a must see if you are interested in Australian history.

The film did not glamorise war and showed the hardships that our young Australian soldiers had to face. It was amazing to see the equipment issued to the soldiers in the film which was historically accurate but by today's standards would be considered inadequate.

Well done to the young Australian independent film maker, telling an important story.

Would highly recommend.

My great grand father was a stretcher berar for the 44th and I have a lot of history with this unit. This movie did not do any justice and did not include anything the medics or other people did. The 44th did a raid one night my great grand father went with them as one of the medics. Now medics had no guns back then so remember that. They did this charge he killed two Germans in the opposite trench patched a guy up came back picked another mate from the middle over his shoulders and took him back to the allied lines. He was nominated for the vc but never got it due to the captain and the runner killed.in action. You need to follow from time of enlistment to the war to heroic deeds been done maybe someone getting the vc or something. If it was ever to made again it has to be done right or not at all. You.owe it to the men that fought who risked it all and to all that never made it home.

I'm sorry but there wasn't an original theme in this film. Based on a True Story usually means there is at least a focus for the film, a raid, an escape, a struggle against some greater power There's nothing. There are dozens of films that portray the WW1 ANZAC experience better. Just to tell the story of the innocent small town boy who leaves OZ to help the mother country and becomes disillusioned by the war isn't enough. Root out the TV show ANZACs, Gallipolli or The Light Horsemen for a better experience. This film really doesn't warrant the time of effort. It's unfortunately no better than a TV movie.

Lots of new young faces in this movie. Depicting WW1, trenches, mud, rain, snow, rain & more snow. The young boys want to be men on the battlefield and do not understand the consequences of the adventure they thought would await them.

The thing that kept bugging me through the whole movie was the fact they were in mud up to their elbows, yet they were clean-shaven, and freshly cut hair.

Levi MIller is a good up-and-coming actor, and has a good list of past work on here. So will likely see him a lot in the future in movies.

Overall not a bad movie, makes you think about what these young men went through in the trenches over 100 years ago. You can see why on returning home they would have struggled to life before the war. We know now about PTSD, not back then.

Sad to see that in the US & Canada it only returned $743 on the opening weekend. Shows that it was not marketed very well.

This film claims to be based on a true story. I'm not sure what one, other than the fact World War I existed.

Clearly this was made on a shoe string however with a good story and engaging characters it could have still been worthwhile unfortunately it had neither. The simplistic story was so thin you could see through it, the action scenes had no connection with any broader tactical or strategic goals which may have given it some meaning.

Ultimately no story, full of cliches and some indifferent acting.

Looking for positive's, I can suggest the trench depictions and some of the boardwalks felt relatively realistic, Can't recommend this film.

We took my 14 year old son to see Before Dawn. He's become interested in military history and was keen to see it. It gave us all a lot to talk about. For a low budget film, they did a good job of expressing the horrors of the trenches and the harsh conditions in which Australian troops served. This is not a love story, and instead depicts the futility and filth, as well the courage and resilience. It shows the pointlessness of young Australians dying for a cause so far away from home. It's good to see young Australian talent - behind the lens and onscreen - and look forward to more of this genre. I would like to see more women involved in any future script from the producer to provide great gender balance.

I have seen some masterpieces on this genre movie. Those were unbelievably outstanding such as- all quiet on the western front, 1917, hackshaw ridge et cetera.

Director is not so experienced i think. Cinematography average. VFX was annoying. A slow start movie with happy ending. This movie needed more details and clarity of plot. Director couldn't make it. Color grading was not so good but okay. Actors who has tried their best. Appreciable.

The best part is solders who fights for the peace they can find their happiness at the worst moment. Cooperating with mate is very important which has been clearly noted in this movie. Thats why i give 4/10.

I saw this movie in the cinamas yesterday and thought it was very good, they did make a few mistakes but they were minor ones and also gun laws here are very strict so for them to get any kind of machine gun into Australia would have been difficult, they did a great job and the critics probably aren't even from australia hence the bad reviews.

Overall 10/10 i would highly recommend watching this, hopefully it will come to a streaming platform such as Netflix of Amazon Prime Video, the critics should appriciate the effort put into the movie especially since Australia has nowhere near as many war films compared to America or England.

This movie is riddled with unforgivable inaccuracies. The most convincing part is the mud.

An FYI for wannabe screenwriters - check your language references! Australians did NOT say things like "you guys" "ok" and "I'm in" in that era. That kind of error really sets the movie up to fail.

Likewise wardrobe. Check shirts might be commonly worn in the bush nowadays but not back then. And that ridiculous black hat.....

Regarding plot and character development: a decent examination of how impossible it is to 'get it right' in war. It was easy to sympathise with the protagonist's battle with guilt and regret.

Such a great movie on WW1. It depicts the human side of war and the tragedy of the historical event. Very good attention to detail in regard to look, feel and texture. Actors were age appropriate and did Stirling performances. This movie is a must watch for military movie fans. Australia lost so many in the Great War movies like this are important for modern Australia's understanding of the sacrifice. This should have been released close to Anzac Day as it would reinforce the meaning of the day. The home coming at the end of the movie is a statement of lament. Best watched with surround sound and on a big screen.

Watched it last night with my son, a viewer of all movies relating to war, on Prime. We were both impressed. There was a raw and honest quality about it that you don't get in over-engineered productions. It is phenomenal to truly think about how much was achieved on such a relatively small budget. The acting was excellent - these were not seasoned soldiers but innocent young boys. Australians are renowned for being a courageous peoples and I think this spirit is well portrayed. Sadly Australia is also renowned for tall poppy syndrome, and I certainly feel a lot of that is coming through in some of the other reviews written by Australians. The European's have a much greater appreciation for this type of film-making. I would recommend you watch it and decide for yourself. If you're after a hyped up Hollywood movie this is not it. If you after something real, raw and courageous - simple yet powerful this may be it.

I don't agree with all the poor reviews of this movie. What aren't they seeing in this story that I see? I'm not sure. I watched this movie on my huge TV, with surround sound headphones up loud. The immersion of the sound and great picture for me plays a big role for how mich I enjoy a movie. I believe to fully buy in to a story you have to have an environment for immersion with little to no distractions. This in my opinion doubles the enjoyment factor. If i was watching this movie with loud cars driving by, people talking, distracting noise, forget it, watch it some other time. This is no brainless action movie where you can enjoy it with no sound or immerse yourself into the movie. Now, perhaps war movie fans went into this with expectations of great non stop action scenes. This movie was more story and less action. This is not to say there was no action, just not an unrealistic amount as you might find in say, a call of duty game. I found the movie to be real, in terms of believability. The story and characters were good, the acting was good, it was historically correct, and evoked emotion. I bought in to the movie through a combination of a great soundtrack, good acting, excellent cinematography and top notch character development. This is no shoot em up for action movie fans looking for non stop pace and killing. It's a great example of storytelling, with explosion set pieces, action, history, and a love of good stories. I really like good quality war based movies, and I really enjoyed this one. I loved this movie.

This is a decent movie, broadly accurate although with a couple of clangers - some of the colloquialisms are post-2000, not post-1900. The back-and-forth cuts sort of work - they help tell the story, if using an obvious and well-tried method. Life in the trenches is convincing, although the 'cold' scenes did not seem quite cold enough - there's a moment of shaking, but what of being soaked through for days on end, in near freezing conditions? In some respects, the story of the misery of life in the trenches has been told (All Quiet On The Western Front), but it can never be told too many times. The acting and dialogue was understated but, I think, in keeping - Australians are not Americans. And for the idiot who wanted more battle scenes, war tends to be about long periods of boredom and discomfort interspersed with brief moments of unheroic and usually not very spectacular terror. Hollywood may have taught us something different but, with very few exceptions, it is wrong. 7/10.