The Ninety-Fifth

Reviewed by Steven Douglas Mercatante [1]

When one sits down to watch The Ninety-Fifth, The Iron Men of Metz it readily becomes evident this film is not your typical work on the Second World War. Superficially, it is about the U.S. 95th Infantry Division and The battle of Metz; the battle that defined this division's combat record fighting against the Axis forces in the European Theater of Operations during the Second World War. However, within the first minutes of this film, a film first aired on PBS (WTTW Chicago), it becomes apparent this is a movie about more than a combat division. It is a film about veterans, for veterans and a film made for those who care about history.

In short, The Ninety-Fifth is unique. It is not a comprehensive overview of the fighting along the Franco-German border in the fall of 1944 nor is it a specific study of the Battle of Metz. This is not a movie filled with catchy computer graphics, detailed diagrams of weapons and equipment and re-enactments of battles. The Ninety-Fifth is a movie about what it meant to be a G.I. during World War II and what it was like to not only have lived through that experience but also the life that follows when the shooting has stopped.

The Ninety-Fifth lets you know what kind of movie it is in it's very first minute when an off screen interviewer asks Steve Finik, a former Staff Sergeant from Company A of the 379th Infantry Regiment, "What would you tell somebody about War?" Finik responds immediately, and without pause "War is so senseless…" Keep in mind Finik is no knee jerk pacifist, it is made obvious throughout the movie that he is a man proud of his record, proud of his unit and proud of his country - he is also a man who lived through the hell of combat during the bloodiest war in human history. The Ninety-Fifth is not a glorified, sanitized look at combat - it is a study of what it is to experience combat and what it means to survive.

Three other veterans (Nick Fusco, Chuck Wood and Paul Madden) join Finik as the film's protagonists. The veteran's stories are interwoven with archival footage from the war and filming done mostly around events occurring during 1999 (though it took three years of filming to fully capture what the men of the 95th had experienced). The film shows the ceremonies surrounding the 55th anniversary of the Battle for Metz, the 95th Infantry Division's annual reunion on September 2nd 1999, and the return of Finik, Fusco, Wood, Madden and all told some 40 veterans from the 95th to Metz; where in November 1999 they commemorated the November 1944 liberation of the city from Nazi Germany.

The stories told allow the viewer to experience a full gamut of emotions. At times the film will make you laugh, such as when one veteran is describing the almost inexplicable and  illogical "Army way of doing things" and how during training he was assigned to carry a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) even though the rifle and ammunition weighed over one third his 116lb. bodyweight! At other times it will enrich you, such as when a local tour guide from Metz is showing and describing how the city's fortifications and history as a battlefield go all the way back to the Celts, with the city later named after a Roman military governor. The movie will also horrify as these now old and frail men describe seeing their comrades shot through the head, bodies stacked like firewood in the backs of trucks or of having to kill one of the 16-17 year old boy's Hitler relied upon to fight for him in the Third Reich's final months. The Ninety-Fifth is perhaps at its best near its end when one veteran describes what it meant to him to have his grandson call him on veterans day to say thank you. A phone call that occurred just before he travelled to France to visit the Lorraine American Cemetery in St. Avold where approximately 10,700 American soldiers are buried under endless rows of white crosses and Jewish stars; and where this same veteran sought out a friend who had not been so fortunate as to survive the war.

One of the great strengths of The Ninety-Fifth is in how it brings the distant past to life. The film seamlessly moves between the veteran's experiences today, for instance at their reunion or at the commemoration of the 55th Anniversary of Metz' liberation and with the events from the past; such as basic training during the summer of 1942, or as the 95th Infantry Division slogged across Eastern France and on into Germany in 1944-45. One interesting sequence showed the former soldiers as they spoke with World War II re-enactors, in effect allowing the viewer to visualize the octogenarian veterans as they were during the war.

The Ninety-Fifth can be found online at www.the95thmovie.com and in addition to the film itself, the DVD comes with several interesting special features including an excellent collection of archival footage from the Second World War. What is more, a portion of the proceeds from sales of the film benefit the 95th Division Association; an organization dedicated to preserving the history of this division, its men and what it accomplished. My grandfather served with the U.S. Army in the Second World War, in the Philippines during 1944-45, and though that was a very different battlefield and experience than that described in this film, The Ninety-Fifth helps me better imagine what he must have gone through. I highly  recommend this film to anyone interested in learning what it was like to have been a G.I during World War II.

1.Steven Douglas Mercatante's Why Germany Nearly Won, A New History of the Second World War in Europe, is currently scheduled for publication by ABC-CLIO's Praeger early in 2012. Why Germany Nearly Won not only explores how close Germany actually came to winning the Second World War, but also why Germany was defeated. This work stems from over two decades researching and studying the Second World War. Steven's writing in the historical field goes beyond his research, and draws upon his experience as a former history teacher, from his undergraduate studies in history at the University of Michigan, from his graduate work in history at Eastern Michigan University, and from his study of International Law at Michigan State University College of Law. Steven has been published numerous times over in the historical and financial/legal field, both online and in a scholarly journal with a 2008 article entitled; The Deregulation of Usury Ceilings, Rise of Easy Credit, and Increasing Consumer Debt, published in volume 53 of the South Dakota Law Review.