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War is definitely serious business. As nations battle against one another, there’s so much at stake. But director David Michȏd’s War Machine takes a look behind the scenes to show that, at times, the business and politics of being at war can be completely absurd.
War Machine stars Brad Pitt as Gen. Glen McMahon, the somewhat-fictional four-star general who’s sent to Afghanistan in 2009 in an attempt to win (or at least end) a war that’s been going on for eight years. Glen is a super-star known for leading special ops in Iraq while writing a book on leadership. He’s strong and endlessly optimistic, and he arrives with a full entourage, ready to lead NATO’s forces to the kind of win that will go down in history (with his name attached, of course). But his ego, his team’s recklessness, and the politics of the war quickly complicate his efforts.
War Machine is cynical but not dishonest, an all-too-true look at the politics, ego, and PR madness of modern warfare. It explains the strategies and concepts of things like counter-insurgency in a way that’s both wildly amusing and relatively easy to understand (unless, of course, you happen to be one of the soldiers who are just trying to figure out how to do their job). And, really, if it weren’t so sad, it would be even more hilarious.
Pitt’s McMahon is about as over-the-top as you can get—in fact, maybe a little too over-the-top. Tough and determined and entirely set in his ways, he stomps his way into the war, throwing out every bit of advice from those who understand the situation while barking out analogies that don’t make a whole lot of sense. Everyone else seems to understand that he’s been placed in an entirely hopeless situation, but he refuses to back down. And, with his entourage in tow, he storms off to meet with Afghanistan’s quirky president (played by Ben Kingsley) and other foreign officials in an attempt to get what he needs to do what he wants.
The greatest problem that the film faces is in trying to connect the amusingly absurdist moments and the serious moments—particularly as the soldiers under McMahon’s command prepare to march off into battle. After consistently keeping things light (if not just plain ridiculous), those heavier moments may help to remind viewers of the reality of the situation—but they also feel completely out of place, turning a promising satire into an uneven and somewhat awkward war zone adventure.
War Machine shows war for what it too frequently becomes: a tragically laughable battle of egos. And though the execution is rather messy, it’s still an amusing—and often thought-provoking—take on modern-day warfare.
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