Over the past few years, Guy Ritchie and his co-stars have alternated light-hearted stories with stories of great manhood. In 2019, the crime comedy "Gentleman" was shown, followed by "Operation Fortune: Russ de Guerre", which became a hit in the global spy scandal "Wrath of Man". Coming back to the more serious list, Ritchie directed his first realpolitik film, Guy Ritchie's The Testament, and it's his best film in years.
Although the film is not based on a true story, it was inspired by the very real and tragic stories of Afghan interpreters who served in the US military for over 20 years, who were promised visas and then lived in a hostile country. Withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021. Richie and co-authors Evan Atkinson and Maron Davis weave a story about the US military from the author's point of view, the covenant between the people, and the sacred duty to defend their cause. no consent
Ritchie alternates definitions of toys, locations, names, and military jargon with a lot of textual information about the movie. But at the very end there is a definition that illuminates the title of the film and emphasizes its thesis: the word "covenant", which is defined as a bond, pledge, obligation.
That promise aside, sergeant. John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal), a powerful shooter of speed and explosives who leads a close-knit army of soldiers, is inextricably linked to dust and danger. On the other hand, new translator John Ahmed (Dar Selim) is an enigmatic man who doesn't speak much, perhaps due to his dark past and his keen ability to read people and situations. He takes his role as a "translator" seriously – he doesn't just translate language, he reads non-verbal cues, confusion, and expressions to extract the truth.
The team finds a large IED factory in a remote location and is captured by the Taliban, who are continuously firing rifles from Toyota trucks. What unfolds is a story of survival, sacrifice and redemption, a masculine melodrama about blood-soaked bonds and covenants. While Ahmed and John are alone in the desert, John is mortally wounded and is hunted by the Taliban, and Ahmed returns him to the base at great risk to his own safety. It is a saving act of love, kindness, and self-sacrifice that brings John home, but Ahmadi escapes with his wife and child, who are wanted by the Taliban for killing their own soldiers and collaborating with an American.
Frustrated by the debt-laden bureaucracy and the memory of failing to deliver the promised visas, John takes matters into his own hands, leaving the system at his own expense, the only way to pay off the debt. The same personal risk and potential victimization.
Richie has a small cameo in The Testament and it's great to see him working with two really great actors. The two characters often communicate non-verbally, using their eyes and body to convey what is not being said. Both have a sense of mystery – isn't Ahmed too "wild"? Will John do the right thing with his interpreter? They must prove it to each other by their deeds. He expressed the support and importance that Salim attached to Ahmed; Gyllenhaal applies his wild eyes to John's mission, taking full advantage of the weight of the war machine for Ahmed's benefit.
Richie cinematically establishes their connection with a recurring motif that catches their shared eye through the camera lens. Composer Christopher Benstede's music recurs with punchy rhythms alternating between tribal drums and slow mournful strings. Cameras watch the scenery from the sky or drop to the ground in delicate drone footage that puts our characters in space, while chaotic handheld shots capture battles up close. The flashback sequence in which John remembers being dragged off a cliff to safety is lyrical and surreal, placing us in his flashback that led to his dangerous quest.
At times, the acting, camera work, and tone are a little too forced due to the seriousness of the subject matter. Taking on the theme of excessive politics is a new direction for Ritchie, which, when viewed from the point of view of his work, is not as radical as the story of a man who uses criminal thinking to get out of the system in order not to pay. Duty. The approach is to look at this issue at the micro level, at the individual level, but extrapolating from the macro level, it is difficult to consider the many life and death agreements that have been left unfulfilled in Afghanistan.