Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Palaest recommended

GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Leofwine_draca A WAR is a Danish war drama exploring the relationships between men on the battlefield and the consequences of high-intensity combat. It boasts a starring role for the engaging actor Pilou Asbaek, best known to international audiences for his roles in A HIJACKING and GAME OF THRONES. The film begins with the usual Afghan conflict scenes that will be familiar to anyone who's ever seen a Middle Eastern-set war film or watched the news for the last two decades. Two thirds of the way in it turns into a courtroom drama. It's not the most exciting of films I've watched, being glacially-paced for most of the time, but it does have depth and important things to say about the nature of international law and the effect of war on the minds of ordinary men.

David It's no secret that the Danish people are making very good films. In the last four years they have been nominated for three Oscars, including this film Krigen. It is a tale of Danish troops stationed in Afghanistan, with a special focus on their commander Claus Michael and his family back home in Denmark. The Danish troops takes daily patrols to meet and speak with the locals. At the same time back in Denmark, Claus Michael wife Maria struggles with their children, especially the middle son who is in a defying period. Life in Afghanistan changes quickly when suddenly one of the soldiers gets killed and Claus Michael during a heavy fire exchange, is force to make a decision that comes with devastating consequences.Krigen is like many other Danish films brutally realistic and dramatic. With a limited budget, they hardly had any possibilities to make a big Hollywood war film, but in some ways Krigen captures something else. With smaller environments, more focus on the soldiers mental health and the relationship between them, Krigen feels very realistic. It doesn't glamorize war or the life of war. When the soldiers lives are put on edge, you really understand that they are also victims in something they perhaps don't fully comprehend. Parallel with the war in Afghanistan, we also see Maria's life in Denmark. She is forced to fight her own kind of battle and the contrast between hers and her husbands life is very interesting.The best and really most scaring thing about Krigen is the moral questions it asks about war and warfare. When Claus Michael is forced to make a decision to save his squad, he himself gets into deep trouble and suddenly risk prosecution back in Denmark. The country he serves and the soldiers whose lives was his duty to protect, suddenly turns more or less against him. Very interesting and a bit disturbing. I don't think the purpose of the film is entirely to be an anti war tale, but more likely to create debate. What is it like to be a soldier so far from home and can the authorities back home in Denmark really make decisions about certain things when they couldn't possibly understand what it is like to be in the middle of a war zone? I have for a long time, wanted Sweden to make this film but Denmark beat us to it. A very strong and interesting film.David Lindahl - www.filmografen.se

DareDevilKid Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)Rating: 2/5 starsDirector/writer Tobias Lindholm's Danish war drama Krigen, which translates to simply "A War" in English, is completely devoid of staple war movie tropes of heroism, machismo, and intrepid sacrifice. While this method of presentation could have been a refreshingly welcome take on the war genre, it unfortunately stalls the film's narrative severely because of the fact that the movie's also devoid of any semblance of narrative conflict, intense drama, or any other absorbing qualities for that matter. If anything, Lindholm is quite content at steering the film into lackadaisical territory for most of its duration; a far cry for his erstwhile superior endeavors like "The Hunt" and "A Hijacking"."A War" alternates between the Afghan deserts and a courtroom in Denmark, and in the absence of any real depth in-between, the only moments that create moderate impact are the pauses taken by the film's main protagonist, troop commander Claus Michael Pedersen (Pilou Asbaek) – from guiding his regiment on their protective duties – to converse with his wife, who's managing the household affairs and three pesky kids back in Denmark. Denmark's overseas military obligations, tactical modus-operandi, and more pertinent issues related to the troops have been better highlighted in some of their TV shows and documentaries.Lindholm, instead chooses to focus on personal moral dilemmas, which wouldn't have been a bad thing had it been handled with more care and vision. When Clause order a civilian compound to be attacked after his battalion suffers an enemy bombardment, he's ordered home for a court hearing. Our hero, now, has to choose between incarceration for his actions or lying about them outright to save his honor, position, and remain with his family.Though this final act manages to lend some sort of emotional heft and compelling dram to the proceedings, it, unfortunately, comes too late, and by this time, you'd have lost all interest in Clause's dilemmas, actions, repercussions, or anything else for that matter. I wouldn't go so far as to call "A War" a poorly made film, it's just a dull effort that has a few redeeming qualities.Surprisingly, "A War", has snagged an Oscar nominee this year in the Foreign Language Film category. Perhaps, the Academy jury saw something I couldn't, or, maybe, this is another in their long history of missteps. Either way, I'd wager that the other four nominees aren't going to be overly perturbed about competition from Lindholm's film.

andychrist27 This is a movie about a squad commander who makes a mistake. At least that's what his superiors say. He himself doesn't think so. Neither do his troops. But nevertheless he, a loving husband and a father of two children, is dragged to court and faces jail time if convicted. He doesn't want to lie or make excuses as he feels he has done nothing wrong...but he also doesn't want to go to jail.It is a very confident effort by the director Tobias Lindholm from start to finish. There are no heroes and no villains, simply circumstances which force men to make snap decisions when their life is being threatened. The best movie yet done about the war in Afghanistan in my opinion. And would make it to my top 5 list of war movies overall.