Watching this movie was an interesting experience. Basically, we see an arrogant young American who wants to go after Osama Bin Laden, and is willing to risk his (and his companions) life to do it. He obviously is clueless about the environment he's in, and basically thinks he's invincible. There are scenes that are terribly scary, and I myself was scared for the crew. At times, the crew is being faced with actually being shot at--you see the live ammo and explosions head on. And then...
SPOILER ALERT!--what I'm about to write may spoil the experience of watching the film, so be warned.
...then I realize that I have been duped. This comes about when one of the crew is killed, and the camera still rolls. And then I have flashbacks to the major flaw with "The Blair Witch Project". If a comrade has been shot, why would I have the camera pointing in the direction of the victim acting as if nothing happened? We further get this feeling when prior to a firefight, the main protagonist poses around with himself narrating . And finally, when our protagonist gets captured and escapes, he has the camera running, while shooting at the enemy, making it look like a first person shooting game. Now I'm convinced this is a film and not a documentary.
As a movie viewer, I don't mind the documentary feel, and there are some films that were great at capturing it like "Bloody Sunday" or "Man Bites Dog". But in "Bloody Sunday" and "Man Bites Dog", we knew that it was not the actual footage of real events, though the experience brought us closer to understanding it. Here, we are given no warning that this was a real event, and when we find out half way that we are lead on, we don't care for the characters any more.
I gave this film a 7/10 because while I was soured by the final third of the movie, I think it gives westerners a good idea of what living in an anarchic third world country is like, and how ignorant westerners can be to this. I may have bumped it up to a 9/10 if a) we were told that this was fictional, b) the crew had come out alive, but changed, or c) the shooting was more consistent with reality.
SPOILER ALERT!--what I'm about to write may spoil the experience of watching the film, so be warned.
...then I realize that I have been duped. This comes about when one of the crew is killed, and the camera still rolls. And then I have flashbacks to the major flaw with "The Blair Witch Project". If a comrade has been shot, why would I have the camera pointing in the direction of the victim acting as if nothing happened? We further get this feeling when prior to a firefight, the main protagonist poses around with himself narrating . And finally, when our protagonist gets captured and escapes, he has the camera running, while shooting at the enemy, making it look like a first person shooting game. Now I'm convinced this is a film and not a documentary.
As a movie viewer, I don't mind the documentary feel, and there are some films that were great at capturing it like "Bloody Sunday" or "Man Bites Dog". But in "Bloody Sunday" and "Man Bites Dog", we knew that it was not the actual footage of real events, though the experience brought us closer to understanding it. Here, we are given no warning that this was a real event, and when we find out half way that we are lead on, we don't care for the characters any more.
I gave this film a 7/10 because while I was soured by the final third of the movie, I think it gives westerners a good idea of what living in an anarchic third world country is like, and how ignorant westerners can be to this. I may have bumped it up to a 9/10 if a) we were told that this was fictional, b) the crew had come out alive, but changed, or c) the shooting was more consistent with reality.