Not an action-war movie, not a comedy - something bigger and better

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2017)

Official reviews, like The Guardian's, generally have a theme of this film as one that "plays for laughs and misses the mark." I disagree with that entirely, and think many of the reviewers themselves have in fact missed the mark.
This is not intended as a comedy (though there are occasional comic parts), nor as an action-war movie (though the one action scene in Helmand Province is actually quite involving). In my opinion, War Machine is an educational satire, going in-depth to show the futility and intolerable complexity of this paradox of a 'war'.
Yes, the general anti-war, left-leaning message may seem inevitable and obvious to some viewers. However, it is the rich content and characters of the film which provide wide coverage as to the different aspects of the unwinnable War in Afghanistan: the sulky Cpl. Billy Cole (Lakeith Stanfield) who's confused about whether to kill insurgents or show 'courageous restraint'; Afghan President Hamid Karzai (Ben Kingsley) who wonders whether the appointment of the new General McMahon (Brad Pitt in the lead role) is any different to the last general (hint: not really); McMahon trying to manage loads of different countries with varying involvement and limited communication, while scrounging for more troops around an increasingly sceptical Europe; and the fact that the US president himself does not truly believe the war can be won.
Brad Pitt does a good job at portraying the hapless McMahon, mixing eccentric leadership with good intentions yet never fully grasping the reality of the situation. He's not a total idiot - in fact he's intelligent - but is doomed to fail.
I think this is a must-see from an educational perspective and provides more insight into this conflict (and conflicts in general) than in the vast majority of other movies out there. Don't be put off by the reviewers, they just didn't get it.