War films have been a common staple genre in Hollywood dating back to WWI, and since then we've seen a plethora of films centering around every war we've seen in our history. Certainly we've seen many films based on the Iran/Afghani War that the list is endless. Ones that come to mind are: "Jarhead" '05, "Stop-Loss", '08, "The Hurt Locker" '08, "Zero Dark Thirty" '12, "Lone Survivor" '13, and "American Sniper" '14, but, suffice it to say, there are tons more.
This true story is set in the harrowing days following 9/11 when a U.S. Special Forces team, lead by their new Captain, Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) and including Hal Spencer (Michael Shannon), Sam Diller (Michael Pena), Ben Milo (Trevante Rhodes), Sean Coffers (Geoff Stults), Vern Michaels (Thad Luckinbill), Pat Essex (Austin Hebert), Fred Falls (Austin Stowell) and others, is chosen to be the first U.S. troops sent into Afghanistan for an extremely dangerous mission. There, in the rugged mountains, they must convince Northern Alliance General Dostum (Navid Negahban) to join forces with them to fight their common adversary: the Talaban and their Al Qaeda allies. In addition to overcoming mutual distrust and a vast cultural divide, the Americans--accustomed to state-of-the-art warfare--must adopt the rudimentary tactics of the Afghani horse soldiers. But despite their uneasy bond, the new allies face overwhelming odds: outnumbered and outgunned by a ruthless enemy that does not take prisoners.
Others that round out the cast are Ben O'Toole as Scott Black, Kenneth Miller as Kevin Jackson, Rob Riggle as Lt. Colonel Bowers, William Fichtner as Colonel Mulholland, Kenny Sheard as Bill Bennett, Jack Kesy as Charles Jones, Elsa Pataky as Jean Nelson, Mitch's wife and Arshia Mandavi as Najeeb.
This film was well directed by virtual newcomer Nicolai Fuglsig ("Exfil" '17). What amazes me is that although this filmmaker has only one film toward past experience--even no TV, the emotion he was able to extract from his characters was consummate and extremely realistic. With this limited experience, I'm very curious to see what he'll helm next--and there will be a next time. This was creatively written by Ted Tally ("Terra Nova" (TV movie) '84, "The Father Clements Story" (TV movie) '87, "White Palace" '90, "The Silence of the Lambs" '91, "The Juror" '96, "Before and After" '96, "All the Pretty Horses" 2000, "Red Dragon" '02) and Peter Craig ("The Town" '10, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1) '14, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 2) '15, "Blood Father" '16) based on the book "Horse Soldiers" by Doug Stanton. I believe what made this screenplay work was the fact that the two writers have experience that spans thirty plus years. Considering their experience covers a multitude of genres, their combination of style and the ability to collaborate work. It's not without issues such as it did get a bit bogged down in a couple of places and was a bit long-in-the-tooth, but it was gripping and kept the audience on the edge of their seats. If you like Craig's style of writing, "Top Gun: Maverick" is in pre-production for a 2019 release. By the time I left the theater, my legs were wobbling as I walk down the aisle. My only regret was that I didn't see this in the IMAX format because the fighting scenes were that intense.
With all the war films I've seen in the past, this one was a real roller coaster ride replete with great direction, writing and acting especially by Hemsworth. Even Hemsworth's real wife, Elsa Pataky played his wife in the movie which gave that much more reality.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: R 130mins.
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