Tldr: this feels like a very cheap and amateur attempt at a fictionalised representation of the US army from the feverish mind of someone who does not understand anything about the events but use them as an excuse to push a certain agenda. Horrifically inaccurate, an insult to the memory of the victims, and cinematically well below average.
This movie wants to cover in a fictionalised way the Maywand District murders. This is on the back of an existing documentary and already raises the question as to - what more could they present here that has not been covered at length by every main stream outlet?
I'll tell you what: this gives the movie maker a perfect opportunity to present completely inaccurate and vastly misleading representation of the behaviour of US troops on the grounds in Afghanistan. The Maywand District murders DID occur. But not in that fashion. A simple check of the Wikipedia page indicates that they happened directly as a result of oversight from senior management, leading two isolated individual attempt at forming a disturbing sports killing team, operating completely underground and unknown to anyone else on base. The movie however, makes it appear as if this was the way the entire base, and even the entire US army operated. It's so deeply unfair to those that have served honourably, it's insulting.
In addition, anyone with a modicum of understanding has to how these bases operate, will immediately notice that no military advisor was hired to provide consulting on language, operations, how briefings are given, and even the equipment. There are so many errors that even the untrained eye will spot them. As full of vehicles there are all CGI and extremely badly rendered with no historical accuracy whatsoever.
The movie is bad enough on its own, but what's absolutely puzzling is why a24 would land its name to something like this. It's not just a bad fictionalization, It's a bad movie too. It's all around bad and I can't believe that the company that produced the mind-blowing 'enemy' or 'under the silver lake' and even scored an international hit recently with 'EEAAO', would stoop so low.
It would be comically bad if it was not so offensive.
This movie wants to cover in a fictionalised way the Maywand District murders. This is on the back of an existing documentary and already raises the question as to - what more could they present here that has not been covered at length by every main stream outlet?
I'll tell you what: this gives the movie maker a perfect opportunity to present completely inaccurate and vastly misleading representation of the behaviour of US troops on the grounds in Afghanistan. The Maywand District murders DID occur. But not in that fashion. A simple check of the Wikipedia page indicates that they happened directly as a result of oversight from senior management, leading two isolated individual attempt at forming a disturbing sports killing team, operating completely underground and unknown to anyone else on base. The movie however, makes it appear as if this was the way the entire base, and even the entire US army operated. It's so deeply unfair to those that have served honourably, it's insulting.
In addition, anyone with a modicum of understanding has to how these bases operate, will immediately notice that no military advisor was hired to provide consulting on language, operations, how briefings are given, and even the equipment. There are so many errors that even the untrained eye will spot them. As full of vehicles there are all CGI and extremely badly rendered with no historical accuracy whatsoever.
The movie is bad enough on its own, but what's absolutely puzzling is why a24 would land its name to something like this. It's not just a bad fictionalization, It's a bad movie too. It's all around bad and I can't believe that the company that produced the mind-blowing 'enemy' or 'under the silver lake' and even scored an international hit recently with 'EEAAO', would stoop so low.
It would be comically bad if it was not so offensive.