This movie is all screwy. Brad Pitt plays General Stanley McChrystal (based very clearly on real-life General Stanley McChrystal), put in charge of the War in Afghanistan during the Obama administration.
As depicted by Pitt, McMahon is just his Inglorious Basterds character without a mustache, but this time, Pitt never feels relaxed in the part. He seems lost in a movie that doesn’t really know where it’s going. It’s a military satire, then it’s a serious depiction of men at war, then it’s a straight up comedy, then it’s a political intrigue movie, and so on.
Director David Michod tries to wrangle this mess with the ultimate movie sin, the voiceover, provided by a character based on the late journalist who wrote the article. Michael Hastings (depicted here by a character called Sean Cullen and played by Scoot McNairy) wrote that Rolling Stone article which eventually inspired the book, The Operators. It also brought down McChrystal, depicted here as a bit of a nut, but a lovely, friendly nut who cared about his men, but wanted to win, win, win. In trying to win, he basically leaked classified info, messed with the President, and essentially called him out on 60 Minutes. The film also tries to be a condemnation of American activity overseas, with a not-so-nice depiction of Obama, played here by a mediocre Obama impersonator.
A strong cast including Anthony Michael Hall, Will Poulter, Alan Ruck and Meg Tilly can’t save this schizoid film. Now streaming on Netflix.
This article appears in May 25-31, 2017.
The movie seems crazy and as you say ‘schitzoid’. But some officers who had been around McChrystal say that the movie captures the genuine craziness of the situation in Afghanistan and the high commands attempt to win, win, win in a no-win situation. A retired Lt colonel stated recently that the hardest thing to explain to people, is that the movie isn’t quite ‘schitzoid’ enough.
A sane movie about an insane situation must appear insane.
You betta wha chowt
Cuz I’m a wah machine
your movie judgement shows a lack of education and experience of how the upper echelon of the american military performs since Dubya. Do some more homework and maybe the intention of this movie will be more apparent.
ladderflappy:
Shut up!