Warzone: Clash of Generals
Games and Stickers
App
When city states fight each other over precious resources, they need war heroes to lead their armies...
Unwritten Diary of Israel Unger
Carolyn Gammon and Israel Unger
Book
At the beginning of the Nazi period, 25,000 Jewish people lived in Tarnow, Poland. By the end of the...
Magna Carta: The Foundation of Freedom 1215-2015
Nicholas Vincent, Anthony Musson, Justin Champion and Joyce Lee Malcolm
Book
Eight hundred years ago King John of England was forced to seal a document of historic importance....
Fado and the Urban Poor in Portuguese Cinema of the 1930s and 1940s
Book
Colvin studies the evolution of Fado music as the soundtrack to the Portuguese talkie. He analyzes...
Hearts in Atlantis
Book
Five interconnected, sequential narratives, set in the years from 1960 to 1999. Each story is deeply...
Covert Radar and Signals Interception: The Secret Career of Eric Ackermann
Peter Jackson and David Haysom
Book
Of German stock dating back to 1530 in Saxony, Eric George Ackermann GM was born on the Isle of...
Japan's International Fisheries Policy: Law, Diplomacy and Politics Governing Resource Security
Book
Few nations rely upon the ocean as much as Japan for livelihood, culture and transport. The seas...
Germany: Beyond the Enchanted Forest: A Literary Anthology
Book
'German military figures had a certain terrifying glamour,' wrote Patrick Leigh Fermor, recalling...
The Periodic Table
Primo Levi and Raymond Rosenthal
Book
Primo Levi's The Periodic Table is a collection of short stories that elegantly interlace the...
Gareth von Kallenbach (974 KP) rated Man Down (2016) in Movies
Jul 12, 2019
This film tries to put us inside the mind of a soldier and they lead up to his deployment to war, the trauma that can be suffered at war and the result of seeing things that can’t be unseen. It begins with U.S. Marine Gabriel Drummer (Shia LaBeouf) searching for his son, Johnathan (Charlie Shotwell), and wife, Natalie (Kate Mara), in a post-apocalyptic America.
His only company is his best friend and fellow war veteran Devin Roberts (Jai Courtney). We then flash back to a counseling session between Gabriel and Counselor Peyton (Gary Oldman). They are recounting an incident that happened while Gabriel and Devin were in the field as well as talk about the relationship between the two brothers in arms. Peyton probes Gabriel for answers to what happened in the field and what his life at home will be like when he returns. The story takes us through Gabriel’s journey from boot camp to his search to be reunited with his wife and child.
The beginning of the film is so scattered with flash backs and flash forwards it is not the easiest story to follow. Montiel tries to tie the story all together at the end but it really done quickly and sloppily. There was no really good flow to the film.
The message at the end was really powerful but there execution to get there really didn’t work for me. The cast individual performances were good but I thought that as a whole there was not cohesion.
The relationships between all the characters seemed forced and it was hard to get emotionally invested in what should have been and emotionally compelling story. LaBeouf does commit and his performance I would say the bright spot. I think the intention was that the end of the movie should be a surprise or twist but the ending for me was never really in doubt.
There were points when the film seemed to have momentum but that was stopped by a flash back or forward that would take you out of the moment. All trying to set up a conclusion that seemed inevitable.
The idea of bringing awareness to a real issue in our country, of returning veterans suffering from PTSD, is a noble one and I applaud them for trying. I just wish the execution would have been better overall.