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A Private War (2018)

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  1. 1. Grade it

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I saw A Private War on a whim today, and I have to say, I really liked a lot of the elements of the film.

 

The acting was predictably accomplished, especially the work done by Rosamund Pike. There is real density to the cinematography, to the many images of the war-torn middle eastern nations. And I love how the viewers' ears are constantly bombarded by many different sounds at once; there is real density in the sound editing and mixing.

 

But it's definitely not quite perfect, and most of that imperfection is due to the editing. There is a notable effort made by the editor to tell the story through the editing, and I admire that; the film definitely has its moments where the editing is very showy, very impressive. But some of it goes a little overboard with how many images it shows at once, and how quickly they come and go. Also, there are many moments in the film where it feels like the camera lingers on a moment for too long; sometimes, you can even see the eyes of disinterested extras (usually child actors) looking around the area; moments like that can take an experienced viewer out of the film.

 

I think this comes down to directorial decisions, though that's not necessarily to fault this director, not at all. This is director Matthew Heineman's first narrative film; his background is documentary film-making, and his most well-known work is likely Cartel Land, which was nominated for Best Documentary in the year Spotlight won Best Picture. In light of this, I'm willing to give the director and his film the benefit of the doubt; what we're seeing here is a director's transitional from documentary to narrative film, and while it's a little bumpy, it's promising to see how effective the film is in spite of that. I've never seen Cartel Land or any of Heineman;s other documentaries, but I can tell how much the director cares about the subject of modern warfare.

 

In terms of awards potential, I'm sure this film will go the way of Hostiles, albeit in a less financially successful sort of way, very much because of how inexperienced its distributor is. And I think that's a shame, because I honestly think Rosamund Pike deserves to be a little bit more in the conversation for this performance. It's a great performance, a great examination of a real-life figure. Also, there's a song by Annie Lennox that plays over the end credits, and I wouldn't mind having that be nominated either; it'd make for a good live performance at the ceremony.

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The main character in the movie is a war correspondent from America who ventures to the Middle East as a freelance photographer and documents the war.  

The movie does not do a good job at being fun.  There is not much revealed about the war other than the after effects.  It is a boring long documentary that connects us to a piece in history, but because it is a very heavy piece of a documentary, I’ll give it a B.

83/100

Edited by belligerent talking robot
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