TRANS-SCRIBE: Sunray: Fallen Soldier

Low budget action films were big business decades ago, with a lot of films made for very little that never managed to be great, but were at least entertaining. With the shape of modern cinema, these cheaper movies with less known actors and poorer effects than the Hollywood blockbusters often get tossed aside before being considered; and as a result a lot of great movies have been missed. Sunray: Fallen Soldier is likely to end up in this category, but it's a movie that's definitely going to be worth your time watching, not least thanks to one of its key selling points; the film used several ex-servicemen both in front and behind the camera to try and deliver as realistic action scenes as possible.

Sunray: Fallen Soldier opens strong, with a small team of soldiers storming a drug facility. As soon as it begins you can see how the film has utilised its experts, as the trio of soldiers move as a well oiled machine, checking every corner, covering each other, moving in synch, and taking down criminals with quick, efficient brutality. The opening scene shows viewers that this isn't an action movie where the heroes are going to charge in guns blazing, doing impossible things, and somehow surviving, but that it's instead going to take a more grounded approach; something that feels incredibly refreshing compared to a lot of other films.

From this opening scene we jump backwards in the narrative to find out why these soldiers just attacked and murdered a group of drug dealers. We meet Andy Coleman (Tip Cullen), a former solider who's living in a caravan whilst working in a DIY shop, a job that we can see he has no love for. He seems like a man struggling to keep going in life, a detached look on his face most of the time. Even his visits with his therapist seem to do little to help him out of his slump; something that seems to be as a result of PTSD from his time in the military.

Meanwhile, his teenage daughter Rachel (Saskia Rose) is heading out for a night of partying with her boyfriend Cassius (Daniel Davids). However, when Cassius has to leave suddenly for a week away with his fathers drug business Rachel is left alone at a party where she ends up overdosing and dies. Andy, enraged by the loss of his only child, becomes determined to find the people he holds responsible for Rachels death, a mission that will bring him and his former squad mates into conflict with a deadly drug empire.

One of the things that surprised me the most about Sunray: Fallen Soldier was the depth that the film had. From the initial premise of a father seeking revenge for the death of his daughter I wasn't expecting much. It's a fairly standard action revenge movie set-up (either child or wife seems to be the most common), and so I was expecting the film to focus more on the murder and violence once Rachel died. But the film didn't do this. Yes, it had these moments, but it also gave scenes over to showing the strained, grieving interactions between Andy and his ex-wife, we spent enough time with Cassius to see that we actually isn't a bad person to the point where you feel bad for the guy, we see more scenes of Andy in therapy dealing with trauma, and we see how military service has had an affect on the rest of Andy's team.

These are all the kinds of scenes that a lot of action films would throw out, keeping a focus on the revenge story and little else that didn't move that narrative forward. But Sunray: Fallen Soldier also seemed to want to tell a more human story, one where you feel something for the characters involved. There are as many quiet scenes of introspection and discussion as there are moments when bullets are flying, and for me this gave the film much more depth than I was expecting. I also appreciate that whilst most of the criminals in the film were two dimensional foes for Andy to overcome not all of them were, and in the case of Cassius you could tell that he was a decent person trapped in a terrible situation, and that he genuinely loved Rachel.

When it comes to the films action Sunray: Fallen Soldier did a lot better than other low budget action flicks. The film never tried to be over-the-top, there are no big car crashes, no explosions, no jumping off buildings, none of those moments that need a big budget and a skilled stunt team to pull off well. Instead, the action was often kept very tight and grounded. The camera would move through the environment with the characters, keeping the focus on them, howe they fight, and how the violence impacts them. Because of this the film has more in common with actual war footage than it does an 80's Schwarzenegger movie. It's clear that a lot of the films small budget was spent here, and it seems to have been a wise choice. There are a couple of moments that felt a little off, some CGI fire that wasn't quite up to par, and a couple of moments where I was questioning if some blood splatter was practical or CGI, but for the most part the action scenes were impressively made and put together.

Whilst I had a lot of fun with the film there are a couple of things that dragged it down a little for me. The first is that Sunray: Fallen Soldier enters a long line of stories where violence towards women is used as a motivation for a man's story, and that it spurs them on to a murder spree. It might not seem like much, but when you've seen hundreds of films where a wife or daughter is killed off to get a man 'back in the action' it becomes very repetitive. If Rachel was changed to a son, and you either had Cassius as a women, or simply had a queer relationship Andy would have had the same motivation without the subtle misogyny. The second is that the films final scene raises a lot of questions, and whilst it does nudge you towards going back and watching things again to see how stuff adds up it also leave you feeling like most of what you've seen in the film has been a lie. Yes, this does play into the films themes of PTSD and how it can change someone, I can see the final moments leaving something of a sour taste in some people's mouths.

Despite a couple of misgivings, I had a genuinely good time with Sunray: Fallen Soldier, and found it to be a very competently made movie. In a time where more low budget films are getting wider distribution on streaming services, but quality hasn't been great, it's lovely to find a smaller movie like this that seems to be pushing to make as good a film as it can. It's not perfect, and you can see some of the flaws here and there, but I think it's a film that will leave most viewers pleasantly surprised.

Sunray: Fallen Soldier is released on digital platforms and in UK and US cinemas on 24th January.