A Private War

My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our public library.

Marie Colvin was a real 21st century war correspondent, an American journalist working for a British news agency. She seemingly had no fear, or if she did overcame it to seek out the hottest of the hot spots and when she could, interview dictators with very pointed questions.

Rosamund (pronounced "Rozz-mund") Pike is totally terrific as Marie Colvin, pirate's eye patch and all after she lost her left eye during a raid. Unless we have been in a cave the past 20 or so years we know all the stories, all the big battles, so this movie gives us nothing new there. What it gives us is a glimpse at a driven war correspondent.

The title is significant, "my private war" is a reference to what is going on inside Colvin, what drives her, what makes her put herself and her photographer in the middle of dangerous war zones? We don't quite get the answer clearly but that is what we should be focused on.

Good movie, Pike is very believable. The very end of the movie has a clip of the real Marie Colvin.

This was a film that had a tremendous amount of power. Rosamund Pike's performance was great Jamie Dorman was outstanding, as was Stanley Tucci and many of the other performances in this film.

It was a very heartfelt film about the horrors of war, and the extent to which madmen despots like Gaddafi and Assad will go to maintain their power. I'm not sure why all the dissenting reviews on this thread, it seems like an awful lot of people that were naysayers were politically motivated. Sure, I don't agree with a lot of US foreign policy, but this movie wasn't really about foreign policy, this movie was about the horror of war, this movie was about the bravery and courage of a woman who in my opinion, was near deity, for performing the work that she performed. Let's get real here, how many of the naysayers on this thread would have the guts to actually go into combat territory like she did and do what she did? Probably 2, if that. It is easy to be brave from your living room.

A very different role for Rosamund Pike then Gone Girl or any other film she has made recently. She takes the care in embodiment of Marie Colven, trying to give her truth life. This is not an easy movie to watch, harsh scenes of war-torn countries and showing real people that have actually been effected by real tragedies. While watching I definitely felt that Matthew Heineman was trying to give the realest depiction of this story. I often felt a little underwelmed with the pacing of this movie, it flips back and forth to the past and present a little too much for me and not focusing long enough on either for the full character development. Rosamund Pike did give a great performance and Marie Colvin's story is worth watching.

The film deals with war correspondent Marie Colvin (masterfully played by Rosamund Pike), she is an utterly fearless and rebellious spirit, driven to the frontlines of conflicts across the globe to give voice to the voiceless. Assigned by her chief Sean Ryan (Tom Hollander) she travels to the most dangerous places on Earth, to risk her life for the truth, while constantly testing the limits between bravery and bravado. After being hit by a grenade in Sri Lanka, she wears a distinctive eye patch and is still as comfortable sipping martinis with London's elite as she is confronting dictators. Yet, her mission to show the true cost of war leads her - along with renowned war photographer Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan)- to embark on the most perilous assignment of their lives in the besieged Syrian city of Homs. The Most Powerful Weapon is the Truth !. The greatest weapon is the truth !.

Thrilling and thorny film with fine actors regarding the world of the war correspondents. This tense and nail-biting biograpical thriller is packed with as much taut action , enjoyable message as the storyline will allow , but let down at times due to its slowness and coldness. Engaging and raw film being compellingly shot , adding some political moments and its allegedly wave flag of impartiality cannot obscure the tension dripping from every frame of such reconstructed immediacy. Stars Rosamund Pike who gives a very acting as the brave correspondent who sacrifices loving relationships -to her lover Stanley Tucci- , and over time, her personal life starts to unravel as the trauma she's witnessed takes its toll. The film follows her fruitful career with United Press International (UPI), a year after graduating from Yale. She worked for UPI first in Trenton, then New York and Washington. In 1984, Colvin was appointed Paris bureau manager for UPI, before moving to The Sunday Times in 1985. From 1986, she was the newspaper's Middle East correspondent, and then from 1995 was the Foreign Affairs correspondent. In 1986, she was the first to interview Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi after Operation El Dorado Canyon. Gaddafi said in this interview that he was at home when U. S. planes bombed Tripoli in April 1986, and that he helped rescue his wife and children while "the house was coming down around us".

The movie belongs to sub-genre that abounded in the 80s about reporters all around the world covering dangerous political conflicts , such as Indonesia in ¨The Year of Living Dangerously¨(1982) by Peter Weir with Mel Gibson , Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt ; Salvador in ¨Salvador¨ by Oliver Stone with James Woods and James Belushi, Libano in ¨Deadline¨ by Nathaliel Gutman with Christopher Walken and Hywel Bennett and Nicaragua ¨Under fire¨ (1983) shot by Roger Spottiswoode with Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy .

Adding more biographical data to those already presented in the film, these are the following: Marie Catherine Colvin ( 1956 -2012) was an American journalist who worked as a foreign affairs correspondent for the British newspaper The Sunday Times from 1985 until her death. She was one of the most prominent war correspondents of her generation, widely recognized for her extensive coverage on the frontlines of various conflicts across the globe. On February 22, 2012, while she was covering the siege of Homs alongside the French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik, the pair were killed in a targeted attack made by Syrian government forces. After her death, Stony Brook University established the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting in her honor. Her family also established the Marie Colvin Memorial Fund through the Long Island Community Foundation, which strives to give donations in Marie's name in honor of her humanitarianism. In July 2016, lawyers representing Colvin's family filed a civil action against the Syrian Arab Republic in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming they had obtained proof that the Syrian government had directly ordered her assassination. In a verdict issued in 2019, the Columbia District Court found the Assad regime guilty of "extrajudicial killing", terming it as an "unconscionable crime" deliberately committed by the government, and mandated Syria to pay Colvin's family $302 million in compensation for the damages.

Marie Colvin was a truly courageous and inspirational person, one of the most courageous and inspirational people of her time perhaps, with a story that should be known and told more. It's one that resonated with me reading of it and despite not going through anywhere near as much as Colvin did (despite having a lifelong rough time myself) it was very easy to relate to her and root for her cause all the way. The trailer also looked great and Rosamund Pike has impressed me a number of times previous.

Despite 'A Private War' being critically well received and Pike's performance being pretty much universally acclaimed, when finally released in my country it was criminally and shamefully underseen with hardly any advertising and a limited cinema release (the few cinemas that did show it had screenings at inaccessible times). Much more than this incredible woman and her story deserved and for the film to get this treatment is an injustice. Finally seeing it a few days ago, it was well worth the wait because while not perfect 'A Private War' was a powerful experience. Actually felt it treated Colvin and her story with respect and subjectively feel that some of the criticisms it's garnered here are unfair and over-the-top to the point of disrespect.

'A Private War' is not perfect. There are time jumps back and forth that can feel rather jumpy and rushed, so it's a little disjointed at times.

Stanley Tucci is far too underused in a very underwritten part, Tucci plays it well and gives it a good bash but it is hard to do more with limited screen time, a sketchily developed character and some of the film's more clunky dialogue.

However, 'A Private War' has a lot working in its favour. The production values are both beautiful and grittily unforgiving, with editing that really adds to the increasingly hard-hitting authenticity and a striking wide variety of camera shots that don't give the impression of being too clever or showing off, instead doing what the editing excels in. Matthew Heinemann directs with enough momentum and breathing space with no visual self-indulgence at the same time, especially good in the latter stages. The music is used in the appropriate places, recorded without being too loud and has the right amount of unsettlement. Am surprised that hardly anybody has mentioned Annie Lennox's Golden Globe-nominated original song "Requiem for a Private War", truly haunting stuff.

Other than some melodramatic moments, the script is thought-probing and poignant and one feels constant admiration for Colvin. While the back and forth structure was flawed, the story still continued to grip and the film does deserve credit for not trivialising the subject. It actually pulls no punches and is not an easy watch (both her bleak personal life and the job), doing so in a harrowing way and it had me emotionally drained by the end, more so than most films seen recently. Did not feel 'A Private War' glorified Colvin or villified anybody else, and thought a difficult story was treated with respect.

Have a lot of praise for the cast too. Jamie Dornan shows that in the right role with good writing he can be good, a very deeply felt performance, while Tom Hollander is also very good. 'A Private War' though belongs to Pike, who is absolutely exceptional as Colvin, one of the best of the year in my view, and it is a mystery that she didn't get more awards attention. Giving a lead performance as fearless and intensely committed as Colvin herself, doing it while disappearing into the role and becoming her and not being an impersonation, have always liked her a lot but her performance is is on the same level as her unforgettable turn in 'Gone Girl' in its own way.

In conclusion, very well done film though a hard watch. To be seen mainly for Pike. 8/10