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- Recently released on Netflix, after hitting VOD this past summer, The Outpost is a superbly-executed war film featuring nice, nuanced performances.
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Jul 3, 2020 · “The Outpost” isn’t the first film to document how human errors led to the loss of life—the Battle of Kamdesh resulted in multiple disciplinary actions against people who failed to support the base in the first place—and it certainly won’t be the last.
- Enemy at the gates.
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- Verdict
By Matt Fowler
Updated: Oct 9, 2020 10:06 pm
Posted: Oct 9, 2020 10:00 pm
This is a catch-up review, where we head back and watch a movie we missed over the past few months of PVOD and limited theatrical releases. The Outpost was released via PVOD last July but it's been recently made available to stream on Netflix.
Admittedly, most war films aren't my bag, but The Outpost, from director Rod Lurie (The Last Castle, Straw Dogs), is an exceptional blend of writing, acting, and technical filmmaking. Sadly, like many other small and medium-budgeted films that weren't delayed due to COVID, The Outpost got blurred out and buried over the summer during the failed experiment to reopen theaters.
Based on journalist Jake Tapper's non-fiction book, The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, the film depicts the months leading up to the Battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan, where just over 50 soldiers found themselves surrounded on all sides by hundreds of Taliban insurgents in a death trap of an outpost, located in a remote region of the country at the bottom of three steep mountains.
Yes, those assigned to Combat Outpost Keating were aware of its reputation. Commanding officers who were flown in knew the area's high mortality rate for the oft-targeted captains. The soldiers knew that the camp itself was at the bottom of a kill-zone cauldron and that air support was at least two hours away. The Outpost, as a story, nicely draws us into a large ensemble, who you at first think will all too easily blend together into nebulous characters, and shows us a battalion that's, bottom line, just trying to survive the day-to-day. While their superiors focus on respectful (and mostly fruitless) sit-downs with local tribal elders, the men band together as possible "short-timers," knowing that no matter how good any of them are they could be taken out at any time.
There's an episodic nature to The Outpost that really works well. Perhaps stemming from Lurie's TV shows, like Commander in Chief and Line of Fire, the film traverses several months in these soldiers' lives, giving us quick hits of their daily routine and big bursts of some of their more violent encounters. Not only does it work as a nice build to the final 20 to 30 minutes of the movie, which is the superbly-executed Battle of Kamdesh sequence, but it's also the best way to utilize a large cast and give most everyone a scene or two to help them stand out.
When the film starts, it generously gives you everyone's name, though no one is expected to instantly memorize them all. In fact, it's such a daunting amount of names that you might worry you'll never get the hang of them. But, as mentioned, the movie works very hard, presumedly because this is based on a true story (where one of the surviving soldiers is even playing himself), to make everyone feel important and utilized. That's not to say the movie doesn't focus on some more than others, as there are a few "main" characters, but everyone still feels like they're part of the larger puzzle.
Scott Eastwood and Caleb Landry Jones are the standouts here, whereas Orlando Bloom is good but also kind of a larger-name cameo. Eastwood, who can't help but give off Clint vibes, delivers a very engaging and urgent performance as Staff Sergeant Romesha while Caleb Landry Jones uses his inherent oddball qualities to bring Specialist Carter to life, as an angry man who doesn't fit in with the rest of his squad. Bloom, mentioned previously, doesn't quite have the screen time the film's poster might suggest while a similar brief pop-in worth mentioning involves another famous actor's son, Milo Gibson.
The Outpost is a cleverly, and respectfully, crafted war film that uses a segmented, episodic approach to help you invest in the characters while building up to a very impressive battle sequence. It has notable main characters but the way the narrative is constructed no one in the large cast feels sidelined or marginalized.
Dec 21, 2023 · Summary. The Outpost receives high praise for its realism, with a rating of 9/10 from an expert and positive reviews from veterans. Director Rod Lurie's background in the military contributed to the film's unprecedented level of realism for a Hollywood war movie.
- Rod Lurie
- Senior Reporter
- Scott Eastwood
A small unit of U.S. soldiers, alone at the remote Combat Outpost Keating, located deep in the valley of three mountains in Afghanistan, battles an overwhelming force of Taliban fighters in a ...
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- Rod Lurie
- R
- Scott Eastwood
Christopher Clark, an eco-warrior, has established his unique Outpost of Progress in the heart of the Amazon rainforest -- a utopian society based on the perfect balance between nature and...
- Documentary
Jun 29, 2020 · Just a few minutes past the midway mark of “ The Outpost,” director Rod Lurie re-creates the Battle of Kamdesh, and for nearly the next hour of this intense, immersive modern-day combat thriller,...
Oct 11, 2020 · The Outpost was released via PVOD last July but it's been recently made available to stream on Netflix. Admittedly, most war films aren't my bag, but The Outpost, from director...
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