Special Forces

I am not going to watch this movie again. Why? Because there was few moments in the movie where it felt real. Although some of the actors like the female reporter did a good job of acting, the surroundings didn't seem to be following. The action part looked like any other with the bad guys falling like flies and the good guys standing exposed to the bullets and nothing hitting them. The bad guys resembled zombies and just walked towards the bullets to die as soon as they could. Whenever any of the good guys were hit, everybody cried and screamed like it was the end of the world and they had a lot of time mourning right in the middle of sustained shootings. But the bad guys didn't care dying and as mentioned fell like flies to the ground. The chase scene also didn't look real. While the heroes had to pass high altitude in extremely cold and snow storm, the bad guys suddenly appeared and surprised them. Unlike the heroes, they had little clothing and no sign of wear and exhaustion. This movie could be a lot better if the action scene were a bit more realistic and the bad guys had more character and looked smarter. Other stuff that I didn't like was the fact that these guys where not found although the military had hundreds of ways of finding them. They didn't search for them and these guys had nothing electronic to send a signal back to base although they had everything else imaginable like infinite number of bullets to shoot during their journey. Sometimes in the movie you could see that they had used ideas from other movies to make it more dramatic. You can of course watch this movie but don't be afraid to get disappointed.

You get what you pay for and - when compared to Black Hawk Down - the budget for this movie would get you an Oyster card for Zone 1-2 for a month. This isn't Hollywood dollars and it shows.

Some of the scenes are a tribute (or plagiarism) to the Ridley Scott masterpiece. There is a decent opening sequence and the acting is reasonable, but you just feel that you're being dragged into B-movie territory despite wanting it to work.

Weirdly, what really lets down the move is the music. Its all low-end production music and has nothing to do with the supposed location, making it harder to believe it was shot on location.

Had there been more zeros on the production bill, this could have been an eight but it'll need to be a low six I'm afraid.

In the intro a French special forces team is in Kosovo to get a notorious war criminal. Unlike a US mission that would send maybe 1 chopper and 3 or 4 guys, the French send 5 or 6 choppers and countless guys. For some reason all these choppers don't seem to get noticed by the bad guys. Of course our team gets the guy no problem.

Next in Afghanistan, a French reporter interviews an Afghan girl. She's interviewed her before. The girl tells her the story of how she was sold into marriage. Her husband--the big bad local Taliban leader. I guess the Taliban discover that the girl is spilling her guts and when she leaves she's grabbed by dozens of Taliban. Our intrepid reporter decides she's going to rescue the girl with her two local helpers. Of course they immediately are grabbed as well and we meet the Taliban boss who wants her to to recite one of those confessions for the camera. She refuses and one of her helpers gets his throat slashed.

Back in Paris, the French government immediately launches a rescue mission--it's our team from the intro. The courageous French president of course doesn't think twice about agreeing to the risky mission to rescue a single reporter. When the team arrives in Pakistan where the captives are being held they witness the Taliban killing the Afghan girl. The team finds the reporter, Elsa, and her local assistant, Amen and rescue them. But the Taliban are on their tail. So they miss the rendezvous with the chopper and are on their own now with hordes of Taliban chasing them.

Several firefights and injuries ensue. The team leader decides they will walk to Pakistan!?! Crossing the Hindu Kush mountain range no less!?! Before the border they stop at a village. But soon the Taliban arrive. Amen decides to stay back because he knows the Taliban will wipe out the villagers. So Elsa also decides to help Amen and that forces the entire team to become "humanitarians" as the team leader complaints. Eventually they leave for the snowy mountains and everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Of course there will be a final confrontation with the Taliban leader.

Special Forces is a rather odd French action survival drama propaganda movie. Odd because the action is realistic and great, but then the story is so unbelievable and the heroics so forced and some of the behaviors so nonsensical. We learn very little about our team. At some point before the Afghan mission they are at a party and one of them is presented as a main character, but he's also one of the less likable guys. The team is a strange mishmash of people, most of which don't look the part. The more interesting character is that of the young sniper. Initially, he's got issues killing people it seems, but what choice does he have. I guess French snipers work in solitary not as a team, so he's always off by himself to flank the bad guys.

Now, is it fair to ask for realism from a propaganda film? And as far as I could tell from the end credits there was some French government involvement aside from the usual financing. The way this movie was filmed you almost expect them to tell you that it was inspired by real events. And the movie does go beyond just presenting Western heroics versus the evil guys. The Taliban leader does get to complain about Western imposition of democracy at gun point. He does seek consultation with some higher ups and he's made to appear like a loose cannon. Our team also avoids stating political opinions but leave that to the politicians. The movie portrays the Western armed forces' habit of witnessing horrors and not intervening. Then it does a nice job of showing the Afghan village tradition of giving hospitality to all who ask for it, whether friend or foe.

It's a bit surprising that this movie precedes the American war propaganda films and unlike these, it's not afraid to harm its characters. Overall, Special Forces has strong first and second acts. But these are short. The long final act/journey gets tedious.

While 'Forces Spéciales' has some shortcomings, I have to say I enjoyed watching it. Sure the team doesn't always look up to the task, a few actors may not be too convincing either (although most are) and one may wonder about the tactics used in the film.

What I liked about this movie was that the crew and cast went to Tajikistan to shoot the Afghanistan and Pakistan scenes which makes the whole story more realistic – American productions would usually settle for Morocco or Jordania but the scenery is not quite the same. Another quality in 'Forces Spéciales' is the storyline which is kept simple, there is not subplot or complicated background: A French reporter is kidnapped by the Talibans, a team of team of soldiers is sent to rescue her. Also, languages have not been unified into English, something Hollywood still has problems with regularly.

'Forces Spéciales' might not be the best action movie ever (I am not sure this is what it's supposed to be anyways) but it has nothing to be ashamed of in comparison to 'Act of Valor' which was a big disappointment for me.

If you like war stories, if you like survival, if you like army movies...

Look no further.

This wonderful movie is about a group of 6 special forces, lost somewhere in the Middle East, without communications or vehicles.

They have to walk through the mountains to reach Afghanistan and their base.

The whole movie is not based on the travel, but it takes a big place.

This is an action and emotional film.

There are some good real action scenes and a lot of feelings during the long and hard travel.