WHAT’S IT ABOUT
When an aid worker vanishes in the first hours of war in Ukraine, a former Navy SEAL and CIA operative crosses into the shattered country to bring her home-facing mercenaries, shifting battle lines, and ghosts he thought he left behind.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
“Man of War” is an exceptional film depicting the life of Connor (LaMonica Garrett), a former Special Forces soldier looking for closure after serving in the military. The film opens with Connor sitting alone with a bottle of alcohol, looking through photographs, holding a gun in his hands, and being riddled with scars. All of the scars Connor has on his body tell a story even before Connor opens his mouth to speak. Soon after we see Connor in the above scene, we hear a ringing cell phone. All of a sudden, the sorrow that has been building in Connor now turns into a mission. Russia has invaded Ukraine, and now Connor’s adopted daughter, Riley (Kira Kosarin), has been captured by a ruthless Russian commander named Koniev (Daniel Bernhardt). Connor calls on an old friend, Charlie (Jason Patric), to help him escape the life of peace he has been living and return to the war zone he thought he would never return to again. After arriving in Ukraine, the film changes and becomes a quest for Riley’s rescue through the partnership of Connor and Dany, Connor’s local guide (Andrew Howard). They face numerous deadly encounters as they try to find Riley before she is lost for good. Written and directed by William Kaufman, this storyline has been used in many films; however, the difference here is the location. This is not a fictitious war in an invented nation; it is the actual invasion of Ukraine being covered by media and this makes the film carry an emotional impact that most action movies fail to deliver. The action in Kaufman’s gunfight scenes is sharp and clean. Each punch that hits has a clear purpose behind it. Kaufman is one of the top directors in this low-budget action genre because he works hard to ensure that every fight is done extremely well, despite the fact that the story doesn’t have much of a backbone. There is a moment where Connor has a conversation with Dany about how war is hell and why he continues to make it a part of his life; it is a valid point, and the film seems poised to explore the significance of having a life built on violence. Instead, Kaufman has made the conscious choice to end this moment and return to the next sequence of shooting an automatic weapon. In demonstrating respect for these veterans and for the real-world stories on which they are based, Kaufman has ultimately fallen short of presenting a film that probes into what war really costs after you view it. Garrett carries the lead role with a quiet, steady presence, and it is worth noting how rare it still is to see a Black actor anchor a war thriller like this one, front and center, not as backup to a white lead. He plays Connor as a man locked down tight, controlled to the point where the audience never quite gets close to him. Bernhardt plays the villain with a cold, nasty edge, and even though he disappears for a big stretch of the middle of the film, the final clash between him and Connor pays off. The real find here is Howard as Dany. He brings humor, heart, and a real sense of loss to a man fighting to protect his family and his country at the same time. He is easily the most alive character on screen, and he gives the film whatever emotional center it has. The action itself fulfills the reason why people came out to see this film- there are plenty of explosions, gunfights, and close-quarter fighting, with most of it fairly intense and fast-paced throughout the majority of the script’s run-time. However, there are elements that show this film was made on a low budget such as; when filming certain scenes in cars they used a green screen that didn’t look very convincing; using pre-shot images of buildings outside so many times that you begin to question whether they are really actual videos; the last showdown scene had some very basic filmmaking errors regarding if/when the characters were within shooting range of each other; combined with the dark footage made it near impossible to keep track of who was where and/or who shot who. This last part of the movie had a lot of negative impacts because of the low-budget shoot. At 110 minutes, the film runs a little long for how simple its story is, especially since it throws Connor into the war zone almost immediately. Nothing about the plot will surprise anyone who has seen a rescue mission movie before. Still, there is something admirable about a film that tries to sit inside a real and painful moment in history instead of hiding behind a fictional stand-in. It does not always know what to say about that history, but the attempt to say something at all sets it apart from movies that only want to entertain. Man of War works best as a solid, well-made action film with real firepower behind it, carried by a strong lead performance from Garrett and a scene-stealing turn from Howard. It reaches for something deeper about the toll of war and the men who keep choosing to fight it, but it never fully gets there, choosing safety over hard answers. Fans of gritty, boots-on-the-ground combat films will find plenty to enjoy, even with the rough patches in the visual effects and the confusing final battle.
OUR RATING – A HARD FOUGHT 6