War Machine

War Machine (2017), written and directed by David Michôd, was one of the few recent war movies I have seen that is more about the politics and personal life around war on the general’s side of things compared to focusing on the fighting. That being said it doesn’t forget about the fighting. It is a dressed-up movie that looks good, as it should, being a Netflix original shot on a RED, and is acted well. It doesn’t feel like the other war movies as it’s not entirely serious, having its funny moments. It’s not a comedy and it’s not a thriller. Falling into the blanket term of “drama” tends to mean you can do whatever you want, and War Machine seems to be a realist.

There aren’t a billion acronyms thrown around and no one speaks in the phonetic alphabet all the time. There aren’t huge navy seals doing the impossible. It’s not over-glorified, or understated. It’s not run and gun, or bad asses opening a can of whoop-ass. It’s not a lonely soldier pining to be home, and it’s not boring. It is real and rounded. It has funny, serious, sad, and some confusing moments all combined to the reality of life. one way that they achieved this feeling was by giving it a narration, from a reporter’s point of view, an outsider looking in, as many movie goers and viewers are to military standards, let alone movies in general. The characters are interesting and I have definitely seen them before. Not in other movies but in reality, as I spent a good amount of high school around military folks.

War Machine sticks true to the reality of what some people are like, but does exaggerate with them at points. It makes sense that there are old colonels and generals out of shape. It doesn’t make sense that the young corporal assisting still has his baby chub and looks so damn pitiful all the time. It makes sense that the young marines who have been trained to kill have a hard time coping with the new way of war they have to commit. It talks about how the Afghani government needed to be seen at the helm otherwise the US involvement would be just another armed occupation. The movie touches on the subject that the people over there, both helping and fighting the Americans are all people and there are no uniforms. It touches on the fact that 10-2=20 when dealing with counter-insurgency. It touches on that the longer the US stays, it’ll only be worse for those who live there when the Americans leave. It touches on the idealism of the Afghani people and it touches on the toll of self-idealism and image some of these military men have.

The main meat of War Machine goes into, “wha-ha happened was...” It’s a reflection on the levels of near lunacy these men work on and deal with. It somehow has a down-to-earth feeling despite all the egotists we see. But it does show what a good leader is, in General McMahon (Played by Brad Pitt). This movie doesn’t talk about the effects of war on those who go through it. It isn’t about the civilians who protest and live with it. It’s about the politics of getting a job done, and the kind of crazy this one man in charge of doing so was. The movie starts off by talking about, “What do you do if the war you’re fighting can’t possibly be won in any meaningful sense? Well, obviously you sack the guy not wining it and bring in some other guy. In 2009 that war was Afghanistan, and that other guy was Glenn.” Then the rock music plays and we see general Glenn McMahon walking through the airport, looking all bad-ass and full of himself. It’s an amazingly satisfying scene. This and his continuous introduction automatically has us liking him and leads us to believe that McMahon will get this job done despite how counter-insurgencies have never worked, and how he is facing what seems to be a no-win scenario. McMahon’s enthusiasm and belief in his ability is contagious and we start to believe he can do it too. But the movie winds down with the politics again at McMahon’s heels, biting him down. It gets to how even he lost belief in his abilities to win this war, and why war is so important to some people like him.

I love the ending. We could stop it there and have us all reflect on that one experience, that one man who failed. It could even be perceived as the last straw, where the US had to pull out of Afghanistan leaving the country in the chaos that we turned it into, with little to no stability. But instead we hear again, “Obviously we sack Glenn and bring in some other guy, and that other guy was Bob.” And another general (Played by Russel Crowe) comes walking through the airport looking all badass with his team over that same awesome rock song. I absolutely love the near mirroring images of the first and last scenes. There are differences though. In the opening Glenn is alone, making him seem capable and in charge, humble almost, but still confident. In the ending Bob is with all of his officers, making him seem like a harder force ready to smack down, even tougher than Glenn, so he might really get the job done. The reason for this being that we’ve just gone on a two-hour journey with Glenn, seeing all the trials he had to go through on this job. To perpetuate the cycle, which is a farce showing how our society gets swept up in the motion, even though we know it will have the same outcome.

This was also so we can see his crew as there obviously isn’t going to be any more of an introduction because this isn’t the story of Bob. It’s Glenn’s story. And as we may have learned something from this, in reality there was no talk about how counter-insurgency won’t or can’t work, that we were fighting and unwinnable war. We sent in someone else to win the war because that first guy wasn’t winning it. Both teams of officers and generals would definitely be perceived and seen as stuck up, assholes who don’t care about anything else, but once you’re in with them you can relate to them and see what they really are.

Also, I believe the way they showed Obama was done right. They kept him out of focus, didn’t use close ups or frontal shots of his face when it was an actor, and used real news and press release footage, as well as re-making some of their own to include their actors. It both does and doesn’t present a popular opinion or what we’d all like to say war is like, but that’s what we need as a society. We need to see the reality of what’s happening. A no bullshit assessment. As far as war movies go, it is my opinion that this movie is one of the most well-done war movies to date. Showing the politics and absurdity behind the war we commit to, and the why. It is satirical afterall. That’s how we can start to move on, move forward, and in the future learn to change the way in which we attempt to bring freedom across the globe, if that is what we are doing.

June 12, 2017