The Reel Review
A U.S. Army sergeant’s sense of moral obligation is put to the test, first when he must learn to trust the more independent but accurate instincts of his new Afghan interpreter, and again, after the interpreter saves the sergeant’s life during a deadly Taliban ambush. When he discovers the U.S. government has failed to live up to its promise to evacuate the endangered interpreter and his family to the U.S., the sergeant coordinates his own daring rescue mission. Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim star in this action/war thriller from director Guy Ritchie (Wrath of Man, The Gentlemen).
Despite the cringey, self-aggrandizing title, this film is Ritchie’s best directing work to date. It is an intense, pulse-pounding action saga that eschews Ritchie’s more typical cutesy, quippy-dialogued reliance on style over substance. Well-choreographed battles give the film a deep dose of realism, as likable platoon members are killed off suddenly and without a pause in the head-spinning action. Salim is a standout as the cunning Afghan interpreter who is able to sense when something is wrong and save his American comrades, and who has a personal reason to oppose the Taliban.
The only real weak spot in the film is the fever dream montage, when Gyllenhaal’s sergeant realizes the incredible lengths his interpreter went to save him. Although brief, it detracts from the film’s otherwise taut, intense pacing. Ritchie’s film is an admirable attempt to highlight – and by way of one individual, at least – right past wrongs the U.S. government has done by abandoning thousands of interpreters and other Afghans who helped the U.S. military during the 20-year occupation of Afghanistan.
REEL FACTS
• No One Left Behind, a service organization that assists Afghan and Iraqi combat interpreters trying to flee their homelands, has obtained Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) and evacuated 2500 Afghans since the U.S. left the nation in August 2021. The organization says tens of thousands of Afghans, however, remain. The group says the Taliban has killed hundreds, and possibly thousands, of individuals it deemed as pro-American traitors.
• Iraqi-born Danish actor Dar Salim got his big break in the Danish TV series Borgen. His next film will be 2024’s Guardian.
• Jamie Lee Curtis says she and godson Jake Gyllenhaal got to bond when, along with girlfriend Jeanne Cadieu, he lived in Curtis’ home next door to her residence for nearly a year during the COVID pandemic. Curtis says Gyllenhaal made a hobby out of baking sourdough bread, something Gyllenhaal says he continues to do.
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