LUCKY STRIKE

Name: LUCKY STRIKE
Item: LUCKY STRIKE
Author: Leigh Hewett

"Compelling War Movie Marred by Strong Foul Language"

Family Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

LUCKY STRIKE is a war movie set during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II in December 1944. Scott Eastwood plays Captain Castle, who’s ordered to take some munitions experts and engineers to destroy a major road. The Allies don’t want armored German divisions using the road. Castle survives, with a wounded thigh, but German gunfire decimates his squad. Castle must work his way through German lines to find his way back to Allied forces using only his wits, his rifle and a military radio.

LUCKY STRIKE is a compelling, suspense-filled war movie. Scott Eastwood does a good job as the determined hero. LUCKY STRIKE has a strong moral, patriotic worldview, with a strong stance against Hitler’s National Socialist tyranny. One of the best, most heartwarming parts comes when Captain Castle helps a Belgium girl survive some Germans who killed her parents. LUCKY STRIKE has some strong and intense war violence, but it doesn’t get overly bloody. However, it has excessive foul language, including 32 strong obscenities and profanities, plus 25 other obscenities. So, MOVIEGUIDE® finds LUCKY STRIKE excessive and unacceptable.

Content:

(BB, PP, ACAC, C, LLL, VV, A, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral, patriotic worldview, with a strong stance against Hitler’s National Socialist tyranny, in a story of heroic endurance about an American captain during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II in December 1944 trying to get back to Allied lines, not to mention his wife and infant son back home, and having to rely on his wits, his rifle and a military radio, plus some light but solid Christian content such as soldier wears a crucifix and kisses it before going off to battle (so does a Jewish soldier with a Star of David), a solider sacrifices his life for another soldier, hero helps a teenage farm girl survive, and two soldiers wish one another “Godspeed” in one scene

Foul Language:

About 51 obscenities (including about 26 “f” words), six GD profanities, and one light MG profanity

Violence:

Lots of strong and intense, and some light and intense, violence such as a German patrol shoots up a truck load of American soldiers, one soldier shoots one of the Germans in the back but is shot several times, American soldiers run into a German machine gun nest that kills and wounds some of them, two American outflank the two Germans in the nest and hit them with their weapons, one of the American soldiers jumps on a live grenade and dies with stomach wound, German soldier shoots a woman, but the hero shoots him before he can kill the woman’s younger daughter who looks like an older teenager, hero runs across more German soldiers and shoots them dead while they shoot at him, hero uses a flame thrower against one German officer, explosions, hero is hit by a piece of shrapnel during a barrage of artillery, plus similar gunfire between hero and other German soldiers as hero tries to return to Allied lines

Sex:

No sex

Nudity:

No nudity

Alcohol Use:

Some alcohol use, especially after the hero picks up a flask of alcohol from another soldier

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Lots of tobacco smoking, but no drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

A German spy poses as an American soldier.

More Detail:

LUCKY STRIKE is a war movie about an American captain during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, who must work his way through German lines to find his way back to Allied forces using only his wits and his military radio. LUCKY STRIKE is a compelling, suspense-filled, well-acted movie with a strong moral, patriotic worldview, but it has too many strong obscenities and profanities to go along with plenty of intense war violence.

The movie opens with some black American soldiers in December 1944 traveling in a truck headed for the front lines to supply the troops fighting the Battle of the Bulge. However, their truck breaks down, and a larger German patrol arrives and kills them all.

Cut to after the war where an American Colonel, named Castle and played by Scott Eastwood, visits a black woman to give her news about a lawsuit she has against a military supply company. Castle asks for some of her coffee that’s percolating. When she returns with the cups, he takes out a small flask and puts some whiskey into it.

Flash back to December 1944. Castle, who’s merely a Captain now, is part of an engineers and explosives unit. The CO orders Castle to take a squad up to a fork in a major road and blow it up, so that armored German divisions can’t use it. Their truck gets stuck, and the squad has to walk the rest of the way to the fork in the road.

As they begin to set the explosives, a German machine gun nest above them starts shooting at them. Captain Castle takes one of the men to outflank the two German soldiers. They take out the two soldiers, but one of the men is alive and pulls a grenade. Castle’s guy jumps on the grenade and dies, saving Castle’s life.

The surviving men in Castle’s squad finish setting up the explosives and blow up the road. However, an armored German vehicle comes along, finishes the men and wounds Castle in the thigh. Castle takes out the Germans, however.

Using only his wits and the squad’s military radio, Captain Castle must work his way through German lines to get back to the nearest Allied command center. Meanwhile, the Battle of the Bulge rages around him.

LUCKY STRIKE is a pretty compelling, suspense-filled war movie about heroic endurance. It’s really nice to see Scott Eastwood, Clint’s son, play the kind of leading role his father enjoyed playing when he was younger. A couple times Scott shows an annoyed expression that duplicates the ones his father often gave, and the resemblance is fun to see for movie fans. Scott does a good job throughout LUCKY STRIKE as the determined hero, but in his own way. MOVIEGUIDE® likes it when children of older stars can become stars in their own right, such as Jeff Bridges, Scott Caan and Kate Hudson, daughter of Goldie Hawn.

LUCKY STRIKE has a strong moral, patriotic worldview and takes a strong stance against Hitler’s National Socialist tyranny. One of the movie’s best, most heartwarming parts comes when Captain Castle helps a Belgium girl survive a German attack that killed her parents. Also, Castle is determined to survive because he has a wife and son back home waiting for him. LUCKY STRIKE has some strong and intense war violence, but it doesn’t get overly bloody or gory. However, it has excessive foul language, with more than 30 strong obscenities and profanities, plus at least 25 other obscenities. So, MOVIEGUIDE® finds LUCKY STRIKE excessive and unacceptable.

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