Filming style and sound editing accurately reflect film theme.

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2016)

Beasts of No Nation is a Netflix original movie that was filmed in Ghana Africa with the plot of the story taking place in West Africa. The main actors of the film are Abraham Attah who played Agu and Idris Elba who played the Commandant. Agu is the main character that watches his family flee and die his home village as it is taken over during civil war activities. He wanders off on his own until he is rampaged by the NDF. They end up taking him in as one of their own and we as the audience get to see Agu's childhood and innocence slip away as he is transformed into a child soldier.
The Director, Cary Joji Fukunaga, uses a staccato filming style near the beginning of the film. The quickly changing scenes gives the audience a feeling of confusion and uncertainty to mirror the feelings of Agu as he struggles to adapt to his new and ever changing lifestyle. As the movie goes on and Agu grows accustomed to some of the things that used to make him nervous, this style of film is reserved for only new events that startle him. Fukunaga also uses the changing of scenes to show contrast. Most of the film is shown in a subjective point of view or an indirect-subjective point of view. This allows the audience to see everything up close and personal in the eyes of Agu. However, occasionally the movie will change to a scene that pans across the vastness of the forest they are in as an objective point of view. This emphasizes to the audience that the Agu and the NDF, no matter how big and loud they seem, are seemingly insignificant compared to the vast jungle they inhabit.
The Director also makes great use of sound effects throughout the movie. There is never any silence in the movie. The quiet moments are filled with the sound of leaves rustling, the wind blowing, animal sounds, insects buzzing and water flowing. These sounds may seem trivial in the grand scheme of the movie with all the gun fire, yelling and explosions that take place, but these sounds are actually the most important. The presences of these background noises allow the audience to understand that Agu's environment is a place where he must always be aware of his surroundings. As the movie progresses and Agu's innocence slowly disappears, the natural background sounds are replaced with background music to show Agu's disregard for his surroundings and his slow progression into his own head. His surroundings are no longer abnormal to him as he walks through the forests of West Africa which the Director accurately reflects in every aspect right down to the simplicity of the background sound.
This movie is recommended to anyone who values movies that show harsh reality rather than pleasant fantasy. The loss of Agu's innocence in anything but pleasant, but it is worth watching to understand what a child soldier endures when exposed to the harsh truths of war.