# The Mosquito Bowl shows war's true cost

> Peter Berg's film follows four college football stars who learned that war is nothing like the game they played.
- Title: The Mosquito Bowl shows war's true cost · TIME | Shortify
- Summary: Peter Berg's film follows four college football stars who learned that war is nothing like the game they played. The Mosquito Bowl depicts four real college…
- Keywords: the mosquito bowl, peter berg, world war ii, film review, netflix, okinawa, guadalcanal, war films, Mosquito, Bowl, shows, war's
- Source: TIME — https://time.com/article/2026/10/31/the-mosquito-bowl-review
- Author: Stephanie Zacharek
- Published: 2026-10-31T01:33:07.918+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: the mosquito bowl, peter berg, world war ii, film review, netflix, okinawa, guadalcanal, war films
## Four football stars went to war
Director Peter Berg's film tells the true story of Dave Schreiner and Bob Bauman from Wisconsin, Tony Butkovich from Purdue, and John McLaughry from Brown, all drafted into World War II.
## They thought war was like football
The four men believed they could win the war the same way you win a football game, with strategy and athleticism, only to learn how far off the mark they were.
## The Mosquito Bowl, Christmas Eve 1944
The film's title refers to a legendary football game between two Marine regiments at Guadalcanal on Christmas Eve, 1944. Of the sixty-five men who played, fifteen were killed on the island.
## Three of the four died in Okinawa
A few months after the Mosquito Bowl, three of the four main characters were dead in Okinawa. Berg spares no bloody detail in depicting the deadly battle that followed.
## The football game is the film's heart
After brutal training and the battle at Tarawa, the men play the actual Mosquito Bowl, where they escape into versions of themselves that no longer exist. This is the most exhilarating section.
## Berg shows too much violence
The director throws so much violence at viewers that it feels like padding. One well-placed depiction of combat atrocity can haunt forever, but less is more when depicting war's brutality.

> War is hell, and Berg doesn't want us to forget it.
## War knocks the boyhood out fast
War doesn't make a boy a man so much as it knocks the boyhood out of him fast. The film shows how young men entered combat believing they were invincible.
## Key takeaway

The Mosquito Bowl depicts four real college football players who died fighting in World War II, showing how young men entered combat believing strategy and athleticism would win, only to discover war's brutal reality.