“If there’s one quality this feature has is: Realistic. You’re in the house with them. No time for character development. Not much story. Just action and tension.”
Con Nats
2.5 Bullets
Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza take us inside a US army operation in Iraq in this visceral experience of warfare.
There’s no mucking around here. The opening shot is of a group of Navy Seals getting pumped to a saucy 90s music video clip. That was the character development. Then we see them gathered on an empty street at night. They divide, with no explanation of the task. We follow a group who take over a house with an innocent family sleeping inside. It has a great view of the building they suspect is being used by Iraq rebels to launch an attack against them, so that’s enough reason.
The next day the action is in real time. They watch the Iraqi rebels walk in and out of a building. A grenade is tossed into the Americans lair and one is injured. It’s on. When a tank arrives to collect the injured, it’s attacked and there’s more casualties. They need help.
If there’s one quality this feature has is: Realistic. You’re in the house with them. No time for character development. Not much story. Just action and tension.
The actors have done well to recreate the event and the real Navy Seals helped direct them. But I can’t call the ability to yell at each other as great acting, so there’s little point highlighting names. This feels like a documentary recreation rather than a film as there’s no real story, no characters and no acting. It’s just soldiers fighting a war.
This film is like Hurt Locker and Black Hawk Down and presents a similar ethical dilemma for the viewer.
Was this film glorifying war or anti by showing its horror through graphic reality? There are no slow-mos or heroic moments or music to glorify this war. Like the Iraq war, it shows graphically how pointless it was while dedicating the film to the soldiers involved. They
showed blurred pictures of the soldiers to make its point.
I wondered what happened to the innocent family whose lives were interrupted, who spent the day in terror, whose home was devastated and left soaked in blood. Or are they assumed to be grateful for the ‘freedom’ the US troops brought?
As they leave the house, the terrified mother kept yelling: “Why?! Why?! Why?!” It’s a fair question and one I asked repeatedly as well. This film allows you to draw your own conclusions by shoving your face into their reality. I felt uncomfortable being in the house
with these soldiers. But I never wanted them to be there in the first place.
My rating reflects my own political views. Your rating may differ.
2.5 Bullets
Con Nats, On The Screen
