Emotionless turkey shoot

Rating: 3/10 (3 December 2011)

The main problem with this film is its lack of emotional engagement with the characters. There is a long build-up- too long in my view- at the start in which we see the troops larking about and preparing for their task. But, in contrast to the style of older film making, we learn nothing about their inner lives. They do not discuss their girlfriends or the "folks back home" or mention their hopes for the future. So when the shooting starts, the men we are supposed to be rooting for are no more well drawn than their opponents. It is telling that the most emotional moment is the shooting of a Somali whose son throws himself on the body.
This lack of emotion is not helped by the general style. Quick editing and the fashionable 'washed out' style of colour make this look like a PC game. Ridley Scott is no doubt trying to recreate the confusion of war. But there is a difference between depicting confusion and actually confusing the audience.
The music is often in a different rhythm to the film, which adds to the confusion. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not. For example a scene with an armed car going down a sniper's ally is overlaid with a folk-type tune. This does not vary even when the young man in the turret is shot to ribbons.
The combination of loud music and the general din of battle make the soldiers sometimes hard to understand. This adds to the confusion. I found it helpful to use subtitles.
After the long drawn out opening, the remainder of the film is an unremitting sequence of battle. "Unremitting" is the object word. In 2 hours there is no respite to the gory and violent. There are no quiet scenes. One could say this is a more realistic version of a battle than old Hollywood would make, but does that make it a better cinematic experience? Seeing one body after another being shot for several hours is actually boring to watch.