War Machine

Dir: David Michôd

2017

***

Based on Michael Hastings’ factual book The Operators, David Michod’s adaption is a somewhat clumsy fictional satire, with loads of promise but without the pay-off you might expect. The Operators was a book about General Stanley McChrystal, his time leading the army in Afghanistan and the general futility surrounding counterinsurgency. In this fictional retelling of the story, Brad Pitt plays General Glen McMahon, an idiosyncratic Coen Brothers-esque version of McChrystal, who like McChrystal, had come fresh from success in Iraq to replace the current General in charge who was seen to have made little to no progress. As the introductory narration put it: “Ah, America. You beacon of composure and proportionate response, you bringer of calm and goodness to the world... What do you do when the war you're fighting just can't possibly be won in any meaningful sense? Well, obviously, you sack the guy not winning it and you bring in some other guy. In 2009, that war was Afghanistan, and that other guy... was Glen.”   It’s not just Brad Pitt’s character that seems to have come straight out of a Coen Brother movie either, the narration, script and premise is distinctly theirs, just not as well executed. Not only that, it suffers from the simple fact that when something is so utterly absurd, satirising it doesn’t quite have the impact it should. With our current political climate you could argue that satire is dead, as the absurd has become a reality, so a documentary could be seen as a more productive tool but for this subject it might not have worked. The ridiculousness of the situation is covered in Michael Hasting’s book which was based on his Rolling Stone articles, so I think this was the right approach, they just didn’t quite get it right and as much as I love film, I’m not sure the book could be bettered. There is a distinct juxtaposition of humour throughout the film. While I quite liked his performance, Brad Pitt might as well have been from a totally different film compared to many of his co-stars. My biggest criticism is that after a really strong introduction, War Machine takes a bit of a dive and remains in a lull until the final few minutes. I loved the reactions that the General and his men experience when the penny drops that they are merely pawns in a pointless game of bureaucracy and money-lead politics. General Glen McMahon and his men (General McChrystal and his men) were war solders lost in a faux war, winning was their objective when there was absolutely nothing to win. There is a great scene where an outspoken solder asks McMahon what they’re supposed to do and the General struggles to give him a good answer. The script is also superb: “The thing about counterinsurgency is that it doesn't really work. We tried it in Viet Nam. That went well... The British and the French gave it a shot trying to hang on to *their* crumbling empires... It just hasn't worked. To me, it would seem kind of simple why. You can't win the trust of a country by invading it. You can't build a nation at gunpoint.” It just doesn’t gel particularly well with the live action. I would argue that it is just a few tweaks away from being brilliant, as it is it is good but a shadow of what it could have been. All of the performances are great though and there are more than a few brilliant scenes within that make it a film very much worth watching. Plan B make great films, it’s a shame this one struggled and ended up on Netflix and not in cinemas but it’s weakness is only there due to the strength of its source material.