A Private War

Every week, all over the world, you hear about innocent people being murdered. No matter if the news is from Syria, or any other country, wars will never end. Terrorist organisations, dictators, corrupted politicians, there are different reasons of why a country will always be stuck in a war, such as Syria. If we look back in history, i think we can all agree that there have been too many wars, killing too many people. No matter if we are talking about World War II, Vietnam War, Iraq War, every single one of these have cost the lives of too many innocent people. There are many really good films that have given us different views on wars, in different historical moments. I have a lot of titles to choose between, but let me mention 2 films that i personally really enjoy. The 1998 film Saving Private Ryan, is a very well made war film from legendary director Steven Spielberg. The story takes place during the invasion of Normandy in World War II, and the cast of this film is really good. You have names such as Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Adam Goldberg, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, Bryan Cranston, Ted Danson and many more. And the acting in this film is really good, and the characters bring us a very realistic portrait of how horrible it must have been being a soldier during this period of time. Director Steven Spielberg really worked hard to make this film look so good, and you can tell that he wanted to make this film feel realistic with a very dark tone. Saving Private Ryan is a must buy on DVD or Blu Ray, one of the best war movies you can see that takes Place during World War II. The next film that comes to my mind is the 1986 film Platoon, directed by legendary director Oliver Stone. This film takes place during the Vietnam war, with some really powerful scenes that will affect you emotionally. The cast in this film is really good as well, with actors such as Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Depp, Kevin Dillon, Keith David and many more. Platoon gives you a very brutal view on how soliders struggled in the Vietnam war, and how this war destroyed so many people´s lives. Director Oliver Stone really managed to capture the realistic portrait of this time period, and he clearly wanted to tell us a story that would make us think about the consequences of war. This is also a must have in your DVD or Blu Ray collection. If you have followed news a lot over a lot of years back, you might recognize the name of journalist Marie Colvin. She was a journalist for the British newspaper The Sunday Times, who worked hard in many different countries, covered conflicts such as in Chechnya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and East Timor during the 90´s. She was credited for saving 1500 people´s lives in 1999 in East Timor, from a compound besieged by Indonesian-back forces. For many years she continued her journalist reports from all over the world in different countries, until she died in Syria in 2012. I got a chance to see a new film with legendary actress Rosamund Pike, playing journalist Marie Colvin. Is this one of the best drama films in a long time, or is A Private War not a powerful portrait of such a legendary journalist ?

Marie Colvin ( Rosamund Pike ) is a young American journalist who becomes appointed for The Sunday Times. She have a passion to write important stories and travel all around the world, to some of the most dangerous places. In 2001, while trekking the Tamil Tigers, Marie and her crew are ambushed by the Sri Lanka Army. Despite her attempt to surrender an RPG fires in her direction, wounding her to the point that she loose one of her eyes. Marie is forced  to wear an eye patch. She is diagnosed with PTSD, and refuse to stop working. She argue with her boss Sean Ryan ( Tom Hollander ), who refuses to go on another dangerous journey. Marie will not stop, she wants the world to know the truth, no matter how far she has to go.

It becomes very clear that A Private War want to give you a realistic look into the life of Marie Colvin. She wanted the truth to come out there, no matter what war she was writing about. She was very clear, that the voices of the civilians and their victims will not be forgotten. We get to see her inside many war zones, but we also get to see some of her private life. She had constantly nightmares, consumed a lot of alcohol, but can we really understand what she experienced and all the horror she have seen ? Only the people living in the war zones knows how she felt, so it is not so strange that acohol and cigarettes helped her deal with the pain inside. Actress Rosamund Pike is absolutely brilliant as journaslist Marie Colvin. She capture her voice, her body language and her personality in such a powerful way, that you almost feel that it is her you are watching. To be able to do that is not easy, but we know from other films in the past that Rosamund Pike is a very professional actor ( just see her in the film Gone Girl, and you will know what i mean ). Another detail i think Rosamund manage to do, is give us a very personal portrait of Marie. She wanted to have children, and her job became her way to express herself, fighting for the people who suffer. This is a very emotional film in many ways, since we know what happened to her. But her story needs to be told, since as long as innocent people are killed worldwide, the truth needs to come out. There are some other great actors here as well, such as James Dornan ( who played the serial killer in the great TV series The Fall ) as photographer Paul Conroy. You can tell that Paul wanted to do Everything he can to help Marie get her truth out, but that he was also concerned about her safety. Legendary actor Stanley Tucci ( who i recently reviewed in the Netflix film The Silence ) does a great performance as the character Tony Shaw. Director Matthew Heineman ( who directed the very powerful documentary films Cartel Land and City Of Ghosts ), have made a very strong war drama film with A Private War. This is a film that needs to be seen, by all ages to understand how serious the situation is in many countries. Matthew manage to tell the story in an honest way, and makes sure we understand how much journalist Marie Colvin did for the civilians and victims, while she wrote her journalist stories. Make sure you see this film soon, and i promise that you won´t regret that you did.

Rating: DDDD