BEFORE: I remember this film caused a bit of a stir back in 2015, and then I kind of forgot about it for a few years, and then it popped back up on my radar last year while I was doing a sweep through Netflix titles. Then it took about a year to find a way to link to it, hoping that it wouldn't disappear from Netflix before I could get to it, which is a common problem for me.
Idris Elba carries over from "The Take".
THE PLOT: A drama based on the experiences of Agu, a child soldier fighting in the civil war of an unnamed African country.
AFTER: OK, maybe it wasn't the best time for me to watch a film that's so stressful, about teens being recruited as soldiers in an African war, not when everyday life in NYC is stressful enough right now. But as I've said, every film has a lesson in it somewhere, so maybe I just have to put this fictional suffering seen in the film up against my own, and then maybe my own problems aren't really so bad right now. It's a "count my blessings" kind of lesson, perhaps - thankfully I was born in the U.S. and kind of at the right time, because I was just a kid during the last stages of the Vietnam War and I was already out of college and working when Gulf War I came around. My skill set isn't really one that the U.S. military would have benefitted from, anyway. Being good at video-games didn't come in handy until we were using drones and flying spy cameras later on.
More blessings to count - there still seems to be something of a state of order being maintained in the U.S., at least for the moment, except maybe in Michigan, where armed protestors are not taking kindly to being told they have to shelter at home - I guess in their minds that's just one small step away from the guvment taking away their assault rifles. OK, fine, you don't have to do the lockdown, but then it's your own fault when you catch the Covid-19 virus and need to be put on a ventilator. At that point the hospital is free to deny medical care to you right-wing lunkheads, anyway you'd probably consider that socialized medicine, and we know you hate socialism, so feel free to self-medicate at home, let me know how that works out for you.
Look, the bar's been lowered, as far as I'm concerned. As long as I don't go stir-crazy at home, as long as the TV and movies keep coming to my house, and I only have to leave once a week for groceries, I'm going to be fine on the other side of this. They've taken away restaurants, bars, sports (not a big loss for me there), concerts, weekly comic books, vacations, casinos and the adjacent buffets, all other public events, but it's all in the name of the common good. And this will end, it just becomes a question of when. May 15? June? July? I'll be on staycation until I get the all clear, just keep sending those unemployment checks via direct deposit. And so I've learned not to say, "We'll be all right as long as..." because that's an instant jinx. But we'll be all right as long as a civil war doesn't break out. Whoops, I just jinxed it.
While they never say which country is supposed to be represented here, I remember there were news stories in the early 2000s about children becoming soldiers in Africa. I suppose after a long period of killing adult men in any particular country, they would recruit teens as the next logical step. And yes, this means that teens have guns and blades and were being sent out on missions to kill "rebels" (aka civilian refugees) or blowing up bridges with mortars, or doing whatever their commanders told them to do.
Without getting into details of the plot here, that means living under a chain-of-command structure, being expected to fulfill any orders given by a superior officer, and the lower a person is in the chain, the more people there are above him, telling him what to do, what drugs to take, when to sleep, when to march, and even who to kill. In this story where Agu gets involved with the NDF (Native Defense Forces) he's taken under the wing of the charismatic Commandant. But there's both an upside and a downside to being pegged as the Commandant's favorite. Then there's a breakdown in the chain of command between the Commandant and the leader of the NDF, Dada Goodblood, and that affects the whole battalion.
According to the IMDB, this was Netflix's first original film. There was some thinking back in 2015 that it might garner some Oscar nominations, so it was given a short theatrical release to qualify, but at the time the Academy had a clear bias against streaming services, and no Netflix film got nominations until "Mudbound", 2 years later. Four theater chains essentially boycotted this film, because it streamed on Netflix during its theatrical release. Oh, how the tables have turned, because although a theatrical release is still necessary for Oscars qualification, the Academy itself streamed many nominated films to its members, and that process was more secure than sending out screeners by mail. These days people don't seem to care much whether a film was made by Netflix, or Amazon Studios, instead of a major studio, all quality films seem to be getting equal consideration - "The Irishman" was on Netflix shortly after its theatrical premiere, and nobody really cared much, it just meant that more people, including Academy members, could see it sooner and more conveniently.
And right now, of course, Netflix is still open for business while movie theaters across the U.S. are closed. These are crazy times indeed.
Also starring Abraham Attah (last seen in "Spider-Man: Homecoming"), Ama K. Abebrese, Kobina Amissah-Sam, Emmanuel Nii Adom Quaye, Kurt Egyiawan (last seen in "Pan"), Jude Akuwudike (last seen in "Sahara"), Grace Nortey, David Dontoh, Opeyemi Fagbohungbe, Teibu Owusu Achcampong.
RATING: 5 out of 10 ammo boxes
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