War Machine

2017
TV-MA
2h 2m

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

51K

YOUR RATING

Brad Pitt, Anthony Michael Hall, Daniel Betts, Topher Grace, Anthony Hayes, Emory Cohen, John Magaro, Aymen Hamdouchi, and RJ Cyler in War Machine (2017)

An absurdist war story for our times, writer-director David Michod (Animal Kingdom) recreates a U.S. General's roller-coaster rise and fall as part reality, part savage parody - raising the specter of just where the line between them lies today. His is an exploration of a born leader's ultra-confident march right into the dark heart of folly. At the story's core is Brad Pitt's sly take on a successful, charismatic four-star general who leapt in like a rock star to command NATO forces in Afghanistan, only to be taken down by a journalist's no-holds-barred expose.

Play trailer0:31

3 Videos

78 Photos

Satire Comedy Drama War

An idiosyncratic general confronts opposition from enemies, allies, and bureaucrats while leading a massive rebuilding operation in Afghanistan.An idiosyncratic general confronts opposition from enemies, allies, and bureaucrats while leading a massive rebuilding operation in Afghanistan.An idiosyncratic general confronts opposition from enemies, allies, and bureaucrats while leading a massive rebuilding operation in Afghanistan.

Director
- David Michôd
Writers
- Michael Hastings
- David Michôd
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

51K

YOUR RATING

Director
- David Michôd
Writers
- Michael Hastings
- David Michôd
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 nominations total

Videos3

Photos78

+ 72

More like this

7.1

6.3

6.5

6.2

7.2

The Siege of Jadotville

5.3

6.1

4.6

6.2

6.1

7.1

5.4

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
Despite being an anti-Afghanistan war movie, Pentagon reporter Helene Cooper spoke with The New York Times podcast "The Daily" that "everybody at the Pentagon is talking about (War Machine). It's a very anti-Afghanistan war movie, but the guys who you think would be offended by it, love it", Cooper added. "It's amazing to me. So many of them have lost colleagues, they've lost fellow soldiers and are constantly asking, 'What are we still doing there? What are we fighting for?' But at the same time, we have these officers who say, 'We've lost all these people in Afghanistan, we've spent so much blood and treasure on the ground in that country, and then you just turn around and pull out. What was that for?' It's a contradiction at the same time."

Goofs
President Hamid Karzai's name is mispronounced by Ben Kingsley who is playing him. Should be Haamed not Hameed which is a different name even though both names are transcribed in the same way as Hamid from Pashto they are written differently in Arabic.

Quotes
President Karzai: Your predecessor, General Whelan! I liked him! I'm not entirely certain he liked *me*; he didn't visit very often. Why was he dismissed? It seems- uhh, one minute he was here- uh, next minute, not here.
Gen. Glen McMahon: Ah. Well, Mr. President, I think our government simply felt it was time our effort took a new direction.
President Karzai: And uh, what is this new direction?
Gen. Glen McMahon: Ah! It's most important to me that we *build* Afghanistan. Together, we build Afghanistan into a free and prosperous nation, free from fear and conflict.
President Karzai: I see.
Gen. Glen McMahon: Yeah.
President Karzai: I see. Sounds a lot like the *old* direction.

Connections
Featured in ACS France (2018)

Soundtracks
Confused
Written by Jon Spencer (as J. Spencer), Judah Bauer (as J. Bauer), Russell Simins (as R. Simins)
Performed by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (as Jon Spencer Blues Explosion)
Courtesy of Dirty Shirt Music
Under license from Gaga Music

User reviews220

Review

Featured review

7/10

A very interesting anti-war movie.

War Machine is a movie about the absurdity of the war of Afghanistan and the absurdity of American foreign policy in general. Therefore the tone of the film is absurdist to reflect this. Brad Pitt's portrayal of General McMahon is absurdly over the top and quite deliberately so in order to reflect the general's absurd actions and attitude, his interactions with the other characters including the politicians are baffling and confusing which again reflects the baffling and incoherent nature of America's policy towards Afghanistan and the Middle East. How do you wage bloody war and build a nation up at the same time? The two do not go hand in hand.

War Machine's exposes just how much of a wild goose chase the battle against the Taliban is, how do you defeat an enemy that are often nothing more than disgruntled locals who have had quite enough of American soldiers bombing civilians homes and killing their children, without committing genocide? The film makers have reflected this by showing the Gen. and his men embarking on a wild goose chase of Europe in a futile attempt to secure more troops to the cause and get some face to face communication with the President of the U.S. The theme is quite clearly wild goose chases galore.

Overall I feel War Machine is an interesting anti-war movie that is much more a dark comedy drama than a clear satire which is what it was wrongly billed as. It isn't the funniest movie in the world but it has its' laugh out loud moments. Ultimately the mixture of satirical comedy, thought provoking drama, and taut action scenes blend together to tell a story which at it's essence aims to provoke everyone who watches this movie to ask, what were/are the Americans doing in Afghanistan? 7 out of 10 and some good performances and score.