Director's statement:

The Forgotten has been an evolutionary process for me both as a filmmaker and as a person; but, throughout its six years in the making, the story and themes have always remained consistent. As a storyteller, I wanted to explore a soldier's emotional journey as he questions his faith in the face of war. As the two sides of his character come to the surface, William is faced with the challenge of reconciling his duties as a soldier with his beliefs as a Christian. This duality becomes the driving force of the film, as his decisions- made at different times by soldier or saint- impact the lives of his men and the company.

This idea of duality is a common theme throughout the film. It is used to heighten and maintain the feeling of dread and volatility of war. Each character displays some level of internal contradiction. The stutterer and dim wit as communicator, the murderer as healer, the enemy as savior- these traits all confirm the duality of man. Viscerally, a 30-ton steel tank charging through the pastoral landscape, the use of both black -and-white and color film stocks, and the juxtaposition of nature's silence with the calamitous sound of battle, all help to create the sense of conflict that is imperative in an understanding of a soldier's experience.

Stylistically the film is a homage to the work of legendary filmmakers such as Sam Fuller and Stanley Kubrick. Like Fuller's The Steel Helmet & Fixed Bayonets and Kubrick's Fear and Desire, the minimalist approach to casting and design helps to focus the viewers' attention on the psychological landscape that exists within the natural geography. The journey of Cowboy 2 is primarily a journey through mental states; therefore, the choice to use both black-and-white and color film is a critical one. The two color-scapes ease the transitions from one mental state to another and force us to reflect on the importance of detail- the color of a flower hardly seems important when faced with the inevitability of death.

This is by no means a light-hearted film, and it doesn't attempt to answer life's questions of war. It is, as the title implies, about remembrance- the remembrance of those soldiers who gave their lives in battle; the remembrance of the war itself, long forgotten in history's long line of global conflicts; and the remembrance of an era when our perceptions of war began to change forever. This is the story of a forgotten war told in a manner and style that has long since been abandoned by Hollywood. It was made as a memorial to both.