DO HORSES GET MEDALS...?

Rating: 5/10 (15 October 2018)

Chris Hemsworth stars in the story of the first elite unit sent to Afghanistan after the events of 9/11 to strike the first decisive blow to the Taliban. From a historical perspective, the details of what actually happened back in 2001 colors the film w/the same kind of brush that films which dealt w/the Vietnam War like The Green Berets or more recently We Were Soldiers act as if the moral & ethical realities of that conflict didn't exist putting this film into a kind of 'ship in a bottle' state of existence. Good actors appear here like Michael Shannon & Michael Pena but they're not given much to do but shoot their weapons & look like warriors doing it. A much better film I felt was Lone Survivor (or 4 Strong) which told the same kind of story w/the appropriate level of gungho-ness & loss. A nice bit of stunt casting is of Hemsworth's wife played by Elsa Pataky, his wife in real life.