Let me preface my remarks by noting I served three tours in Afghanistan during OEF. I saw Kill Team while visiting my sister who was in grad in Venice last spring.
Anyone who has studied the history of crimes committed during war knows there are two general types: a) cases of systematic crimes and b) events of a crime.
These are two very different phenomena. "a" comprises things like Nazi systematical crimes; Japanese systematic war crimes in China, Korea, Philippines,; ISIL/ISIS crimes; systemic crimes by Al Queda and the Taliban in Afghanistan including intentional stoning,burning of thousands of women and intentional mass murder of tens of thousands of villagers; mass murder in the post Yugoslav wars etc.
This is in deep contrast to isolated case of crim e that occur in EVERY, war, eg murder by Australians soldiers in WWII, direct murder of civilians by Union troops in the US Civil war, murder by British soldiers in initial occupied Germany, etc. The latter set do not generally characterize the conduct of the good guys, nor make the war against slavery or against Nazism or against Japaneses fascism, illegitimate wars.
At this point here is another IMDB user review, dated August 5 that is deeply ignorant and itself biased. It states the film represents "what America is, does, and stands for declining rapidly into harsh reality" and that it "shows us Americans the truths that we might not be willing to face, and it also show us the pent-up toxic masculinity and murky grey areas that come with our Army being stationed in hostile areas for long amounts of time."
That is simply not true. This is a case of an OUTLIER sociopath, who for a very short period of time, held non commissioned officer command over a small unit at a forward base and committed a first degree murder of three none combatants. He was fully prosecuted, conflicted and sentences to three life terms and is in prison and not getting out. The young solders in his command received long sentences as well for abetting him and obeying unlawful orders. There was no coverup, there was wide-scale REVULSION within the US Army at these murders -- and full prosecution.
Really the fact that this film is being pitched, and as a result, seen, as emblematic of the war is itself, is itself a crime. Since that is a baldfaced lie, it destroys the utility of the understanding the event and how we have to take care to insure that such events do not occur.
I spent four plus years in Afghanistan. We fought heavily armed personnel who were murdering teachers, we fought against forces that were going through villages and murdering parents who let their daughters become literate, and murdering people who played non religious music. We fought against Al Qaeda forces who were given free reign by Taliban -- both AQ and Taliban committed to putting Afghanistan into the dark ages, and exporting that as well. The vast majority of the people, in the cities and the countryside were deeply victimized by the forces we fought against.
We were not motivated by racism, "toxic masculinity' or any other such BS imagined by filmmakers and actors who never walked in our shoes. This filmmaker already botched the documentary he did a couple of years ago. It started out fine in examining the crime, and then went of into exposition and extrapolation not supported by the facts. this new "dramatized" version is even worse.
By the way I also had to see scores of basic and cringeworthy factual mistakes in procedure, uniforms, equipment and standard military interaction in this film. That is not my main critique, but it is also telling in that it shows that no adviser with military background was used.
These are two very different phenomena. "a" comprises things like Nazi systematical crimes; Japanese systematic war crimes in China, Korea, Philippines,; ISIL/ISIS crimes; systemic crimes by Al Queda and the Taliban in Afghanistan including intentional stoning,burning of thousands of women and intentional mass murder of tens of thousands of villagers; mass murder in the post Yugoslav wars etc.
This is in deep contrast to isolated case of crim e that occur in EVERY, war, eg murder by Australians soldiers in WWII, direct murder of civilians by Union troops in the US Civil war, murder by British soldiers in initial occupied Germany, etc. The latter set do not generally characterize the conduct of the good guys, nor make the war against slavery or against Nazism or against Japaneses fascism, illegitimate wars.
At this point here is another IMDB user review, dated August 5 that is deeply ignorant and itself biased. It states the film represents "what America is, does, and stands for declining rapidly into harsh reality" and that it "shows us Americans the truths that we might not be willing to face, and it also show us the pent-up toxic masculinity and murky grey areas that come with our Army being stationed in hostile areas for long amounts of time."
That is simply not true. This is a case of an OUTLIER sociopath, who for a very short period of time, held non commissioned officer command over a small unit at a forward base and committed a first degree murder of three none combatants. He was fully prosecuted, conflicted and sentences to three life terms and is in prison and not getting out. The young solders in his command received long sentences as well for abetting him and obeying unlawful orders. There was no coverup, there was wide-scale REVULSION within the US Army at these murders -- and full prosecution.
Really the fact that this film is being pitched, and as a result, seen, as emblematic of the war is itself, is itself a crime. Since that is a baldfaced lie, it destroys the utility of the understanding the event and how we have to take care to insure that such events do not occur.
I spent four plus years in Afghanistan. We fought heavily armed personnel who were murdering teachers, we fought against forces that were going through villages and murdering parents who let their daughters become literate, and murdering people who played non religious music. We fought against Al Qaeda forces who were given free reign by Taliban -- both AQ and Taliban committed to putting Afghanistan into the dark ages, and exporting that as well. The vast majority of the people, in the cities and the countryside were deeply victimized by the forces we fought against.
We were not motivated by racism, "toxic masculinity' or any other such BS imagined by filmmakers and actors who never walked in our shoes. This filmmaker already botched the documentary he did a couple of years ago. It started out fine in examining the crime, and then went of into exposition and extrapolation not supported by the facts. this new "dramatized" version is even worse.
By the way I also had to see scores of basic and cringeworthy factual mistakes in procedure, uniforms, equipment and standard military interaction in this film. That is not my main critique, but it is also telling in that it shows that no adviser with military background was used.