War Machine - Netflix

Agent Coulson

In a film for our times, writer-director David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) recreates a U.S. General’s roller-coaster rise and fall as part reality, part savage parody – raising the specter of just where the line between them lies today. His is an anti-establishment, pro-soldier exploration in the form of an absurdist war story of a born leader’s ultra-confident march right into the dark heart of folly. At the story’s core is Brad Pitt’s sly take on a successful, charismatic four-star general who leapt in like a rock star to command NATO forces in Afghanistan, only to be taken down by his own hubris and a journalist’s no-holds-barred expose. War Machine addresses the debt we owe to soldiers to question the purposes to which they are being directed.

The Netflix original film is inspired by the book The Operators: The Wild & Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan by the late journalist Michael Hastings. Joining Pitt in War Machine is a highly decorated cast including Emory Cohen, RJ Cyler, Topher Grace, Anthony Michael Hall, Anthony Hayes, John Magaro, Scoot McNairy, Will Poulter, Alan Ruck, Lakeith Stanfield, Josh Stewart, Meg Tilly, Tilda Swinton and Sir Ben Kingsley. Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Ted Sarandos and Ian Bryce serve as producers. James W. Skotchdopole, Pauline Fischer, Sarah Bowen and Sarah Esberg serve as executive producers. The film will be released on Netflix on May 26, 2017.

Agent Coulson

It drops on Netflix next Friday.

The Black Oil

Tone was all over the shop.

TheDoc

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Don't know it people generally like it or it worked, but I really liked it. Every so often slipping out of the laughter into a sombre moment.

Tend to like anything with Pitt so have some blinkers here, but for something I didn't know about, just saw advertised on Netflix last week and watched, thought it was really good.

Not sure how based it was in reality or what actually happened, or how this portrayal of the character was, really not sure about anything in terms of the grounding of the story. But I definitely came away from it, again not sure on the reality, having sympathy for the military having to work around politics and changing agendas in Washington

RDM_83 again

It was a weird film, Brad Pitt kept seemed to be pulling faces,as a previous poster said the tone was odd, people like Hamid Karzai are portrayed in an odd way, like he is an incompetent, funny, world weary, sympathetic figure who isn't well off - rather than a rather ruthless politician/quasi Dictator that survived a lot and who is likely massively wealthy, he is a minor character in it but it really shows up the angles of the film is going for.
Also features a smug narrator thats basically a Hollywood Liberal cliche and who says the obvious things and comes across super smug.

Generation Kill is so much better than this particularly the way they handle the embedded journalist thing