Full Movies and TV Series - www.5dmovie.com

10 Comments

1. 
   Howard Schumann from Vancouver, B.C.
   

   Oct 03, 2010

   One of the most visceral documentaries about combat ever made

   What would make a young man who has just completed a harrowing and
   brutal six month tour of duty in Afghanistan decide to return for
   another stint? The answer to that question is puzzling, but it is made
   a bit clearer by Janus Metz' powerful documentary Armadillo, Gran Prix
   winner at the Critics Week competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
   Armadillo, like Restrepo, is named for the military base where the
   subjects are stationed. The film depicts the bravery and camaraderie
   and also the addictive high of several Danish soldiers, seemingly just
   out of their teens, that comes from their participation in the war in
   Afghanistan.

   Edited by Per K. Kirkegaard, Metz follows the soldiers from their
   farewell party at home filled with naked strippers to their arrival at
   base camp, moments of relaxation, briefings by their superiors, times
   of boredom, and the combat that includes some stomach turning
   sequences. The camera seems to be ever present and it hardly seems like
   an understatement to say that the director and cinematographer Lars
   Skee's lives were as much at risk as the soldiers. The film also
   demonstrates the plight of the villagers who are afraid of Taliban
   retribution if they cooperate with coalition forces. Caught in the
   middle, the Afghan civilians suffer greatly, standing to lose their
   crops, their animals, and their lives either from NATO forces or from
   the Taliban.

   What makes it even more distressing, as the film points out, the
   soldiers cannot distinguish between friend and foe. When one of the
   soldiers accidentally kills a young girl, all that can be offered is
   compensation while the Platoon commander tells the soldier that did the
   killing to shrug it off because these things happen every day. The
   camera-work is up close and personal and the horrors of war perhaps
   have never had such an immediate impact. We can see the look on a young
   soldier's face after he has just been shot and we see decapitated
   Taliban bodies being pulled from a ditch.

   While the film takes no position either pro-war or anti-war, the
   inhumanity of war has never been shown more clearly and the soldiers
   boasting and laughter after obliterating a wounded enemy while high on
   adrenaline, caused considerable debate about appropriate military
   behavior back home in Denmark. Depending on your point of view the
   soldiers are either making a difference or perpetuating atrocities in
   an unwinnable war. What does become clear, however, is the bond formed
   by the men and their lack of questioning of their mission. Like
   adolescents on a drunken rampage, they are excited by the thrill of the
   moment. We owe Metz a debt of gratitude for showing us the mindless,
   sadistic, and dehumanizing behavior that war can induce. Armadillo
   stands as one of the most visceral and frightening documentaries about
   combat ever made.

   (reply)
2. 
   stensson from Stockholm, Sweden
   

   Sep 01, 2010

   Closer than everything before

   Denmark has troops in Afghanistan. Here we follow a group of soldiers
   during their sex months in Taliban land. They are followed very closely
   by the camera man. In fact so close, that we duck together with him,
   when the machine gun fire starts.

   What's controversial here and has caused much debate in Denmark is the
   possibility of a war crime being committed, almost in front of our
   eyes. We can't judge, but we also see Danish soldiers being hurt and we
   follow the debriefing afterwards.

   The interesting thing is the loyalty conflict, which appears and which
   you will watch for yourself. Watch is war morality about? Anyway, these
   documentary takes us in every way nearer war conditions than most
   movies shown before, even from Vietnam.

   (reply)

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Name *

Email *

Website

Security Code: