Hyena Road (2015)

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Siskoid
I jokingly called Hyena Road "Canadian Sniper" when the trailers came out, but though there's a sniper team in the film, it's more than a sniper story, and director Paul Gross' starring role is that of an intelligence officer navigating Afghanistan's difficult history and cultural mores. I don't think everything clicks - you wonder why there's narration at all, since there's so little of it, and the sound mix, at least on my TV, had the music so loud I had to put the subtitles on - but I liked the film overall. First, because you don't see the Canadian military in films very much, and there's definitely a difference. I don't mean ethical (though the way Canada sees itself is part of the equation), I mean the little things on base. Documentary footage is slipped in to give the film more verisimilitude, but even in the fiction, there's great attention to detail (including the sense that military action in that part of the world is mostly futile). More Generation Kill than, say, Jarhead. And for my money, the best characters are Afghan, which is hardly something you expect. Not one of the great war films of our age, but well made and interesting. 7 years 11 months ago