Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Last Full Measure Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 6, 2020

More than three and a half thousand Medals of Honor have been awarded to various brave fighting men (and only one woman, rather incredibly) since the award was created during the Civil War Era. With that many recipients, it’s probably understandable that not every story of a Medal of Honor winner has been imprinted on the general public consciousness. The Last Full Measure attempts to remedy that situation, if only by “baby steps”, by presenting the ostensible story of one William Hart Pitsenbarger (Jeremy Irvine), a United States Air Force Pararescueman who sacrificed his life in Vietnam in 1966 (at the tender age of 21), during a daring rescue mission where he was able to save scores of his comrades. Aside from the theater of battle, that might make The Last Full Measure sound like it’s at least a bit similar to Hacksaw Ridge, but this particular film tries to make hay out of the fact that the powers that be didn’t initially award Pitsenbarger a Medal of Honor for his heroism, choosing instead to “downgrade” him to an Air Force Cross, something that in turn led to a decades long quest by Pitsenbarger’s parents, along with some concerned military types, to try to rectify that situation.

While it’s more than obvious that the creatives behind The Last Full Measure want to tug pretty forcefully on the viewer’s heartstrings as the film details the ostensible stories of several of the guys Pits (as he was called) saved during a fateful Vietnamese campaign called Operation Abilene, I personally only got really choked up during the final credits of the film, when some of the real life vets who were saved by Pits in 1966 share their stories. The Last Full Measure is a noble effort at its core, but I’m not entirely sure the writing always fully serves its subject, especially with what I assume are at least partially fictionalized characters and events.

The person actually driving the story in The Last Full Measure is not Pits, interestingly enough, but a present day Pentagon staffer named Scott Huffman (Sebastian Stan), who is tasked with reviewing Pits’ file by (real life) Secretary of the Air Force H. Whitten Peters (Linus Roache, once again doing an impeccable American accent). Huffman is initially more than reluctant to do it, but of course part of the story turns out to be his increasing interest in not just uncovering the story of what happened the day Pits died, and why the Medal of Honor wasn’t awarded to begin with, but also becoming more personally involved to the point that he himself engages in a perhaps quixotic quest to get Pits the medal he deserved.

It may have seemed like a smart screenwriting choice by writer-director Todd Robinson to create a focal character like Huffman, though from what I’ve been able to glean online, there was actually a consortium of sorts of interested parties, many of them either in or previously in the military, who sought for decades to get Pitsenbarger the Medal of Honor. What’s really kind of odd about The Last Full Measure, though, is how it evidently invents at least one (and arguably more than one) conspiracy theory that played into Pits not receiving the award. That conspiracy ultimately involves two fictional United States senators, something that makes it all seem kind of cheaply melodramatic at times.

Robinson’s writing in general sometimes relies on shortcuts that almost telegraph their Reader’s Digest expository proclivities. In an early scene with Huffman and his boss Carlton Stanton (Bradley Whitford), Stanton provides acronyms or abbreviations to Huffman for various terms being bandied about, so as to make later uses of those terms more understandable. The film’s structure is intentionally disjunctive, as Huffman meets a variety of vets, played by such notables as Peter Fonda (in his last screen role), Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, William Hurt and John Savage, and their memories in turn lead to increasingly revelatory flashbacks about the carnage suffered in Operation Abilene. While again undeniably noble in attempt, the fact that the film shows virtually all of these vets to be debilitated emotionally, some of them seriously so, may also come across as overly melodramatic.

The rather starry cast also includes Christopher Plummer and Diane Ladd as Pitsenbarger's parents, and Amy Madigan as the partner of the Peter Fonda character. The casting of the several actors playing younger versions of those listed above playing now aged vets does a good job of matching physical characteristics and mannerisms.

The Last Full Measure Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Last Full Measure is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists both Arri and RED cameras as having been used, but fails to specify at what resolution the DI was finished (I'm assuming 2K). This is a sharp and appealingly precise looking transfer when lighting conditions allow. A lot of the outdoor daytime material pops very well, as does even some of the interior sequences taking place in presumably fluorescent lit Pentagon offices. Some of the nighttime material, notably a major scene involving the Peter Fonda character, as well as some of the Vietnam flashback material (which also looks graded and slightly desaturate at times), can be just a bit murky on occasion. Aside from some of those intentional grading choices, the palette looks natural, sometimes gruesomely so in the case of some of the wounds shown in the Vietnam sequences. That said, this is a film without a ton of visual "pop", though some CGI was evidently utilized to provide effects in some of the Vietnam scenes.

The Last Full Measure Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Last Full Measure's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track can be a kind of study in a ping ponging sound design. Much of the contemporary material achieves surround activity courtesy of ambient environmental sounds, which can often be on the subtle side. But when the film ventures back several decades to the firefight in Vietnam, all bets are off, sonically speaking, and the film pretty much explodes into a flurry of LFE and panning effects as various guns are fired and explosions set off. While the noisy environment of the battle scenes can be chaotic at times, for the most part dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation.

The Last Full Measure Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Women of The Last Full Measure (1080p; 1:10) is a rather oddly named featurette, since it's basically just an assortment of brief clips from the film, most featuring men. Diane Ladd is on hand, for those keeping track. The music is mixed pretty loudly in this, to the point that some dialogue is hard to hear.


• Medal of Honor Ceremony Shoot (1080p; 7:28) documents the filming of the sequence, intercutting between behind the scenes footage and snippets from the finished film. There's some touching footage of the real life vets who participated in this sequence as members of the audience.


• That Others May Live: Remembering Operation Abilene (1080p; 8:01 ) is a moving piece featuring some of the real life vets who survived.


• USAF Museum Screening with Veterans & Pitsenbarger Family (1080p; 6:11 ) is another moving piece.


• The Music of The Last Full Measure (1080p; 8:16) profiles composer Philip Klein's contributions.


• William Pitsenbarger Tribute Gallery (1080p; 4:52)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:32)

The Last Full Measure Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I did some cursory Googling in attempting to research the Pitsenbarger story in preparation for writing this review, and I certainly was unable to come up with anything even close to the conspiracy element and/or elements this film alleges. Choices like that, while perhaps (perhaps) understandable for dramatic reasons, always strike me as needlessly manipulative. The Pitsenbarger story is obviously meaningful and moving enough on its own merits that any "fictionalization" seems almost churlish. This film will probably strike a lot of viewers as undeniably moving, but it may be emotion generated on the whims of a screenwriter, not the actual historical record. Technical merits are solid and the supplementary package quite interesting, for those considering a purchase.