I'm watching this movie for the first time in January 2022 and let me tell you that it has aged like a fine wine. This movie is even funnier at this point in time after the recent fuck-up in Afghanistan by the newly elected Biden administration in the US. Basically, since August 2021 Taliban has taken back and rules Afghanistan, again! Today, the Afghan Republic (2001-2021) only exists in a Wikipedia article. Good work US Democrats, you absolute muppets! :rofl: This movie captures the sentiment among the US troops including the disdain they had for politicians and bureaucrats. This movie is also based on a true story. The name of Brad Pitt's character is changed here to a different one. The real general they are portraying is general Stanley Allen McChrystal.

A hell of true and sad story that is the Afghanistan War. An original Netflix production always attracts me, and having Brad Pitt on board playing this unique character made it a must see movie in my case. Brad Pitt played the role of the general perfectly, honestly better then what I expected from Pitt. It isn't the action packed comedy true story that I was expecting, a bit slower then I hoped and it is the realization of the US War Machine in action. I was hoping for some of happy ending but didn't get what I was expecting, but still it was a good movie even though a bit on the slow side.

Honestly, I expected more. The comedy was few and far between, but perhaps the fact that Brad Pitt was pulling stupid facial expressions the entire time is considered funny. I can understand what they were trying to achieve, but realistically - it fell far below the bar. It was awkward to watch and not very interesting.

I am extremely surprised by this film, I expected Fury or Bastards. I really liked this. I find the description blurp "a rock star general bent on ..." to be an incredibly poor description. Pitt is a caricature of a modern Patton, there are a number of troupe characters that surround him, he has a marriage, he has his legacy, his "impossible" mission, it's a train wreck with Obama, cable news, leaks, "nation building" and such. Pretty good armchair primer on the issues for a lot of people and a good watch. I see more of an easy to swallow Catch 22 meets Strange Love meets modernized Patton. At times I wished it would cut loose on political commentary, but it does a good job.

I could take this movie more seriously if it didn't try to make a caricature of both the Afghanistan War and General Stanley McChrystal for the sake of comedy. How much is accurate? I don't know, I do know the instances where he looked stupid seemed contrived based on all accounts of people who knew him personally and written articles saying so. I've met two brigadier generals, Sanchez and Mattis and inarticulate and unable to answer questions is not one of either traits. I personally believed the previous General McKiernan's strategy was perfect. McChrystal's was very similar- the only difference being he got the troops Obama denied the previous general. Obama was likely also unhappy of the 14 year predicted timetable. Politicians want a quick and fast transition with no troops, that pleases voters, that's what they implemented, and that's why we failed. For both Taiwan and Korea to become thriving democracy's from autocracy's took 20-30 years from the 1950's. Re-building a nation and weeding out the Taliban is like weeding out the Cartel or NVC, they threaten local populace to cooperate by death. Security has to be there 24/7 for at least 20-30 years for that fear to go away, establish a life, family and career. We spent 20 years earning the Afghan's trust, rebuilding schools and the airport and assuring Afghani's we wouldn't leave them and ended up doing abandoning them just to please American voters, betraying the Afghans some murdered, some beheaded, or worst, and the rest now in hiding, and the coalition partners that had to go in and get their citizens out. Personally though, I would've hated being under McChrystal's new ROE's. Patrol in places you won't have to use lethal force? Getting punished for killing people trying to kill you? Rules preventing you from demolishing an abandoned house used for ambush then getting ambush the next week because the General didn't want to piss off the populace? NO THANKS. Everyone, including the servicemen and women understand killing innocent people is bad. But making contrived rules of engagement that don't reflect the reality of the situation for idealized view of winning hearts and minds just breeds resentment between soldier and general who might as well be politician at that point- and soldier and populace. Personally I think Trump's peace deal with the Taliban killed the country's future. Then Trump and Biden not retaliating and pulling out of the "peace" deal after 4,500 attacks. The Taliban currently isn't stopping Terrorism they're just as it was 20 years ago, providing training camps and passports for Al Qaeda and any other terrorist that needs a friendly country. Sadly, it's gonna take something worst than 9/11 to change US foreign policy on this issue. Something like Oct. 7 attacks but on Coachella or Burning Man. More marathon and Church and Synagogue attacks. Trucks driving through hundreds of people like in Paris or Germany then opening up with AK's. Politicians won't do anything until after the fact, for election polls. Perhaps the movie would've been better as a documentary instead of a contrived comedy. At the very least, the message would've been more effective.