It's a fairly well made Hollywood heroics war film set in Afghanistan. 12 US special forces soldiers direct guided bombs to the ground to help an Afghan warlord win against the Taliban. They also involve themselves in fights, some involving horse-mounted charges. The acting is pretty good overall, especially Michael Shannon who plays the second-in-command of the US special forces.
The script is pretty awful, lots of cliched talk from the "noble savage" Afghan general about the difference between warriors and soldiers, and "eyes of a killer", lots of overdone fake camaraderie between the soldiers.
The fight scenes have been done very well in terms of special effects but are quite obviously hokum. My favourite is when one of the US soldiers (the one with the beard) is blown off his horse by an explosion, thrown to the ground, and then immediately on landing on the ground, launches a grenade from his rifle which explodes under a pickup, sending the pickup into the air. Sorry but it's too silly. The Taliban machine gunners who don't aim their weapons but just let the machine gun barrels wobble around wildly are another nonsense.
In the light of the recent comprehensive defeat of the USA in Afghanistan, the propaganda element of this film has been made starkly obvious.
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