The Outpost

"Shit detail is the Agent Orange of today"

The grunts we see onscreen in modern war films are the ones who grew up in an information age. They know the sins of their fathers. They know what they are getting themselves into. They are war literate. The audiences who watch these modern war films are the same. We know what to expect, what tropes and cliches of the genre might appear. Every time a new war film appears we watch it in the hope it will do something new, that it won't fall into the same holes as all the others do. Therefore every single time we leave disappointed.

Afghanistan. 2009. Combat Post Keating. A deathtrap at the base of 3 mountains. A stones throw from Pakistan, right in the middle of bandit country. Built to help community projects and foster friendships with the locals. Manned by 53 soldiers, surrounded by the Taliban, it's a place full of men on the edge. Men like the well liked Captain Benjamin D. Keating (Orlando Bloom), stoic Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha (Scott Eastwood) and the rebellious Specialist Ty Michael Carter (Caleb Landry Jones). Word comes down from the top brass that CPK is to close and while it's inhabitants wait to get somewhere safer, enemy insurgents decide to kill them all before they can leave.

Every war platitude gets thrown at you during The Outpost. The rebellious soldier who finds his niche during combat, the waves of faceless enemies who only exist to be gunned and bombed into red mist, soldiers played by well known actors who may as well have bulleyes painted on their chests, characters phoning wives just before battle therefore condemning themselves to death, all the tropes of war movies play out in front of us and the fact that the film is based on a true story doesn't make their use any less brazen or clumsy. I know it feels disrespectful almost to roll your eyes when it's a story involving real life trauma but you'd think a director like Rod Lurie would steer clear of those hoary old chestnuts.

He does know how to create a gunfight though. Here we get thrown right into them, shot with a documentary like realism and in long giddy takes that give us some sense of what being in the middle of a battle must feel like. (hint - its kinda scary) And therein lies the rub, one that has plagued war film since they first appeared. The Outpost takes an anti war stance, taking potshots at military command and their lack of respect for the guys on the ground and by showing us the effects of war on men but it does so by luring us in with exciting, well shot battle scenes. It makes for a confusing, morally odd watch.

The cast does well though, Eastwood as Romesha doing well as a decent man trying his best for his men despite taking orders from top brass who blatantly don't give a fuck about him or them. At times he looks and sounds so much like his famous father that it will lift you right out of the film. Caleb Landry Jones is excellent as Specialist Carter. He's one of those interesting, idiosyncratic actors that can make even the most cliched role into something special and it's his performance, especially in the films final scenes that give the film something approximating a heart. It's a pity the film didn't follow his lead and go for something more unique. As it is it's just another identikit modern war film but to it's credit it does mostly avoid the jingoism the genre is known for.

The Outpost is streaming online now.