War Machine

For some reason I have been really focused on Netflix originals over the past few weeks. I guess there's a lot of original content that has come out of the streaming service and I've wanted to check some of it out. I personally love the idea of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and other streaming services coming out with their own content because you get a whole lot of strange movies and TV shows. Some of them are good, some of them are not so good, but you still get something different.

War Machine was a film that really came out of no where for me. Of course the big draw of the film is the fact that Brad Pitt stars in it, but when I did more research, I figured out that the movie is loosely based on the career of General Stanley McChrystal. If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I'm interested in politics and the military just as much as I am interested in film so War Machine definitely was multiple interests coming together.

War Machine follows the story of General Glen McMahon (played by Pitt). He is appointed by President Obama to go to Afghanistan, take over the Joint Forces, and end the war. With him, he takes an entourage full of colorful generals and colonels, some of them are based off of actual people the same way McMahon is based off of McChrystal.

The film takes a look at a man who really only knows war and has the ambition to be the one to end a war that had been going on for close to a decade. His plan to do that though requires a surge of troops and a whole lot of money and attention coming directly from the President, someone McMahon doesn't get a lot of face time with.

The great part about the film is that it is a satirical film. The acting and the characters are over the top and ridiculous, nothing like the people that they are portraying. While the mannerisms and characteristics might be hyperbolized, it still brings home a couple of really interesting points about the War in Afghanistan on both sides of the argument.

The truth is that the movie has a pretty anti-war message, especially near the end, but it does point out a lot of the hypocrisy and poor decisions and outlooks made by both McMahon and his men, AND the Obama administration.

Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off actually has a role as a member of the Obama administration and he's one of the biggest assholes of the movie because they do point out that the administration had no intentions of winning the war as much as they did getting the United States out of it. There's even a scene where McMahon is straight up stiffed by the President of the United States. For someone who is supposed to be put in charge of the War in Afghanistan, they do make a point to how infrequently the President met with his top general. Now I don't know how much of it is true and how much of it is leaning into the satire, but the movie does pull some truth dropping humor throughout and it really hinges on Brad Pitt.

There are a lot of fun characters in this movie and there are a lot of celebrities involved. Ben Kingsley plays an incompetent version of Hamid Karzai the President of Afghanistan and it is hilarious!

But the obvious star of the film is Pitt. McMahon is a bit of a goofy guy. He walks funny, he doesn't seem very bright at times, and he never really gets the message that the movie is trying to flaunt in front of him. And yet you get really connected to him and there's a lot of sympathy you start to feel towards his character. There's actually another cameo where it's stated to his face that he's a good man, but his methods and his ambition may get in the way and cause a lot of violence and deaths in a war that was very unpopular around the world.

As stated before, as much as they try to throw in some jabs about Obama and his handling of the War in Afghanistan, this movie has a pretty one sided message and it's pretty anti-war.

But the thing that makes War Machine really stand out from other war films is that with the exception of a really great scene near the end where they follow a Marine platoon in a mission in Afghanistan (with members played by Will Poulter and Keith Stanfield), the majority of the movie focuses on the generals that are making decisions at the top for these Soldiers.

Now I will say that their representation of war isn't exactly accurate and it's done that way to make a point, however, I did find it interesting that the majority of this movie was centered on Generals who barely go anywhere near combat. There does seem to be a disconnect between the troops and the generals pushing for more war efforts in the country. Again, it goes into the idea of McMahon having a perspective that isn't exactly bad or evil, just misguided. It's part of the reason the character is sympathetic and funny.

And that's another thing I appreciated about this film.

I remember when McChrystal was fired. The media coverage on the firing was not flattering and it kind of painted McChrystal as insubordinate and unprofessional. I don't know how much of the facts of McChrystal's firing carried over into the depiction in War Machine, but it made me wonder how much of the firing was McChrystal being unprofessional, and how much of it was political and just poor media coverage. War Machine gives a little bit more fair look at the entire career of the 4-Star General. It doesn't really paint him as unprofessional, it just paints him as out of his league when it came to the politics of war and how it was never really about winning or even fighting a war, it was about the politics of it.

I don't know, maybe I'm misinterpreting it, but it made me want to read more into the McChrystal firing because while the movie does not pull any punches on the character of McMahon, it also doesn't paint a great picture of Obama's foreign policy and his handling of the War in Afghanistan.

But all politics aside, I thought that War Machine was a really funny and poignant movie. It had a great message and it executed it in a way that was very enjoyable. If you're a fan of satire, you're definitely going to like War Machine. I've discussed this film with liberals and conservatives and heard praise on both ends. Regardless of political affiliations, I get the feeling most people are going to enjoy, War Machine.

But those are my thoughts, what did you think? What do you think of Netflix's original content? Are they creating the right stuff? Is it high quality to you? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Like I said, I've been watching a lot of Netflix originals as of late. Here's what I'm looking forward to later this month. Enjoy!