'The Mosquito Bowl' director Peter Berg explores Christlike sacrifice, devastating loss in Netflix WWII film

Filmmaker Peter Berg says his latest World War II drama, "The Mosquito Bowl," deepened his understanding of sacrificial love and the devastating human cost of war, particularly the extraordinary bonds between young men willing to lay down their lives for one another.

In an interview with The Christian Post, the director behind "Lone Survivor," "Deepwater Horizon" and "Friday Night Lights" reflected on the biblical principle that there is no greater love than laying down one's life for one's friends, a theme that runs throughout his latest Netflix film, releasing on the streaming platform Oct. 30.

"It deepened my belief in the power of love and the horror of war almost simultaneously, and I think those can both be true," Berg told CP. "To think about the young men who died in each other's arms, or tried saving a brother and couldn't, or gave up their life for another human being, that's really powerful stuff."

Based on the bestselling book by Buzz Bissinger (also Berg’s cousin), "The Mosquito Bowl" tells the true story of four promising college football players who enlisted in the Marines following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and ultimately found themselves fighting in the brutal Battle of Okinawa.

Starring Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson and Tom Francis, the R-rated film follows John McLaughry, Bob Bauman, Tony Butkovich and David Schreiner as they trade the football field for the battlefield, confronting the realities of combat and mortality.

According to Berg, the subject matter in “Mosquito Bowl” is close to both him and Bissinger: his father served as a Marine in Korea, while Bissinger’s father served in Okinawa.

"We grew up understanding the Marine Corps on a pretty deep level and having a real respect for that culture,” he said. 

So Berg, who previously collaborated with Bissinger on "Friday Night Lights," knew that when his cousin told him the story of “Mosquito Bowl,” he knew it would transcend both football and war.

"When Buzz Bissinger kind of aims his creative vision at something like football, it's going to be much more than football," he said. "It's going to be a story about family, about commitment, about brotherhood, about sacrifice, about all kinds of things that are pretty heavy issues and themes that I really like."

The director, who has a 26-year-old son who played football and lacrosse, said one of the most moving aspects of the story was the youth of the men who died, many of whom were barely old enough to begin their adult lives.

"That 21-year-old football star, that's a particular flavor of spirit," he said. "And to think about these young men who were kind of in the middle of that moment, Pearl Harbor hits, and they're just boom: put football down; go to Parris Island without hesitation; go into the Marine Corps, and then get into what they got into and die. That's pretty powerful."

"I don't think that their deaths are any more impactful than the 75 million other people who died in World War II," he added. "The football players are our way in, and the scope that we are aimed at is them. But to me, it's more than them."

"It's a film that I hope makes people remember what we ask of our men and women who go and serve, how precious we should be with their lives, and the cost of war for everyone."

One of the most poignant moments is the Mosquito Bowl itself, where 64 college athletes serving in the Marines experience a brief, joyful reprieve from the horrors of war before being sent into one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific campaign. Fourteen of the men who participated in the game would later die on Okinawa.

"What was so beautiful about Buzz's book and the idea that for three hours these young men got to escape the mindset of war, the mindset of killing or witnessing their brothers being killed," he said.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could live and play, and live in that play mindset, and just be happy and be free and run and compete with a little bit of love in our hearts rather than death in our hearts? And that's what they got for three hours, and then they went to Okinawa, and many of them died."

For the director, making the film, which doesn’t shy away from war’s harsh realities, also gave him an up-close look at the realities of sacrificial love, particularly during a scene involving Schreiner and Butkovich in their final moments.

"There's a scene where Dave Schreiner and Tony Butkovich are holding themselves right before they die, and you can feel the love between these two guys," he said. "These two actors have developed such a bond, and they were like brothers. And during the course of the film, I saw that brotherly love form between the two of them."

"To hold someone in your arms while they die, that's very powerful," he said. "And to have your life saved, and to think about what can be generated, the power of that kind of love, and to think about the horror of the loss, the tragedy of the loss, what it means to a mother to get that call, to a father, to a brother, to a sister, to get the call that your son's been killed. Hard to imagine, right? An incredible pain."

"Those were all feelings that were coming up in me when I read the book, when I did the research, when I made the movie, and they come up right now," he said. "They're very real."

Berg also expressed concern that younger generations, increasingly removed from the sacrifices of World War II, may struggle to comprehend the realities of military service and the consequences of armed conflict.

During his research, the filmmaker traveled to Okinawa with the Marine Corps, an experience he said revealed to him the very real possibility of military conflict in the Pacific.

Pointing to ongoing tensions involving China and Taiwan, as well as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Berg warned that the devastation depicted in the film could happen again if history is forgotten.

"I think it's important when you think about 75 million people dying in World War II, for young generations to take a look at what has happened in the past, to take a look at the sacrifices that have been made, the loss of lives that have been made, and just think about it," he said.

He added that he hopes audiences will leave the film with a renewed appreciation for the lives of those who serve and a deeper understanding of the consequences of the devastating consequences of war.

"Be very cognizant of what war really is, and be very cognizant of what it means to tell a young Marine to go to war today, and what can happen," he said. "It's happening right now all around the world. And I think we've got to pay attention to that because I don't want it to happen again."

"The Mosquito Bowl" premiered at AFI Fest and is set for release on Netflix on Oct. 30.