The Outpost

 

As long as there are wars, Hollywood will continue to makes films about them, especially since audiences have an intense fascination of them. WWI, WWII, the Vietnam Conflict, and certainly the Middle East conflict have given a ton of fodder for writers to create scripts whether being based on reality or not. With "The Outpost" in our midst, this is certainly one of the most descript screenplays based on a true story that I've seen in years.

During the Afghanistan war, several outposts were placed to control the Taliban movement and their supply chain. Camp Keating, situated in a valley surrounded by three mountains, was one of them. While being shot at by the Taliban was business as usual, they attempted to gain respect from local village elders and have them help stop these skirmishes. One day, when 400 Taliban soldiers rallied for a surprise attack, it was up to this small team, including SSG Clint Romesha (Scott Eastwood), SPC Ty Carter (Caleb Landry Jones), CPT Ben Keating (Orlando Bloom), SGT Vernon Martin (Cory Hardrict), SGT Josh Kirk (Jack Kesy), CPT Robert Yilescas (Milo Gibson) and others, to leverage the poor defenses and lack of ammo and manpower they had, to ultimately survive and go back to their loved ones. The Battle of Kamdesh, as it was known, was the bloodiest American engagement of the Afghan War in 2009 and Bravo Troop 3-61 CAV became one of the most decorated units of the 19-year conlict.

Others to round out the cast are Jacob Scipio as SGT Justin Gallegos, Taylor John Smith as ILT Andrew Bundermann, Jonathan Yunger as SFC Jonathan Hill, Alexander Arnold as SPC Chris Griffin, George Arvidson as CPT Chris Cordova, Will Attenborough as PVI Ed Faulkner, Chris Born as SPC Stephan Mace, Ernest Cavazos as SGT Armando Avalos, Scott Alda Coffey as SPC Michael Scusa, Jack DeVos as SGT Josh Hardt, Sharif Dorani as Mohammed, Kwame Patterson as CPT Sylvanius Broward and Alfie Stewart as PFC Yunger. 

This was amazingly delineated with incredible intensity by director Rod Laurie ("Deterrence" '99, "The Contender" 2000, "The Last Castle" '01, "Resurrecting the Champ" '07, "I'm Paige Wilson" (TV movie) '07, "Nothing But the Truth" '08, "Straw Dogs" '11, "The Surgeon General" (TV movie) '13, "Killing Reagan" (TV movie) '16, "Monsters of God" (TV movie) '17) plus TV and shorts. Certainly with this filmmaker's resume, one can see why he could helm this film with the expertise and grit it definitely supplies. The emotion within the comaraderie of these soldiers is amazing and the audience can obviously feel their pain. It was intensely written by Paul Tamasy ("Air Bud" '97, "Air Bud: Golden Receiver" '98, "Walking Across Egypt" '99, "The Fighter" '10, "Santa Paws 2: "The Santa Pups" '12, "The Finest Hours" '16, "Patriots Day" (story) '16) plus TV and videos and Eric Johnson ("The Fighter" '10, "The Finest Hours" '16, "Patriots Day" (story) '16), which is based on the book, "The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor" by Jake Tapper. These two writers were certainly able to capture what these soldiers were up against in this outpost against a merciless adversary. The story builds from what was a routine existence (with the occasional daily shooting) to these guys being totally under fire in a surprise attack. The film almost seems boring at the beginning which was apparently planned, but once the intensity started to rise, it simply moved right along. The fact that Johnson came in to start co-writing scripts with Tamasy only helped both of them be the writers they've become. I'm certainly looking forward to see what they write next. And besides  Eastwood, Jones and Bloom being the most notable actors in this, the supporting cast was riveting and were truly believable in their roles. Other than a couple of very small places of inconsistencies, such as what happened to one of their CPT's in that, all of a sudden, the audience sees yet another CPT was interesting, but not crucial. The stunts and special FX makeup was as much the stars as the stars. 

This film was originally slated for a 7-3-2020 release, but because of the pandemic, it was pushed back to a 11-11-2020 (Veteran's Day) release date. If it was released then, it wasn't playing in my neighborhood, so I purchased it so I could critique it for you. Mind you, this being a war film, it's very graphically violent--certainly understandable considering what these guys went through. So, due to violence and language the 'R' rating is justifiable. But if you are looking for a war film based on an incredible true story, this has it all!

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                              Rated: R                                                 123mins.