O Pacto

Guy Ritchie's The Covenant is a great movie with an interesting story on an important subject matter. It has some intense action scenes and many moments of suspense. The music is fantastic, elevating every scene. That's now three movies where I've noticed a great musical score by composer Christopher Benstead, along with Wrath of Man and Operation Fortune.

Jake Gyllenhaal gives a great performance as usual. The surprise stand out is Dar Salim, who did a great job of getting me invested in his character and wellbeing. I wish Antony Starr (The Boys, Banshee) had a bigger role, but it was cool to see him have scenes with a star of Gyllenhaal's caliber. He's such a great actor and I continue to wait for him to get major movie roles.

I'm impressed with the subject matter covered here. It's so sad and needs to be addressed. It's not the first time the American government has broken promises or shirked responsibilities resulting in catastrophic outcomes for the people who put their trust in them. Some people will immediately call you unpatriotic for even bringing this up. But wrong is wrong, regardless of who does it.

(1 viewing, opening Thursday 4/20/2023)

A movie that starts semi-uninteresting, foggy, vague laced with unknowingness, but gradually takes beautiful shape, commitment, camaraderie, hidden pledge deep from the heart, backed by Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim's charismatic acting, superb and haunting photography & filming, supersonic tech and weaponry and moments of intense despair, frustration and anger.

My initial reserve, doubt and thought of clichéd repetitiveness quickly melted like snow in the sun. More than 85% of the movie seems and is realistic and that's an achievement by itself. Liked it very much and recommend it to any person with a deep sense of honor.

When you think the end is near, a glimmer of hope bathes you in its light.

• Screenplay/story: 7
• Development: 8
• Realism: 8.5
• Entertainment: 8
• Acting: 8
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 8.5
• Visual/special effects: 8.5
• Music/score: 8
• Depth: 8.5
• Logic: 7
• Flow: 8.5
• Action/thriller/war: 8
• Ending: 8.

The Covenant is one of Guy Ritchie's most meaningful films. It's a story that has a purpose and a message. While he's known for his unique visual style he puts that aside for the most part here to focus on the characters and their environment. This movie primarily focuses one two main characters. A Sgt. And an interpreter while in Afghanistan. A lot happens and the two become bonded and become committed to each other in the process. The movie has pacing issues as it starts out fairly slow. It picks up in the second act with some meaningful moments but the third act is where the movie kicks into high gear. The message is one that needs to be shared and the movie does a good enough job on this front. I don't think it's perfect by any means but it's serviceable and does it's job.

In this straight-faced turn from Guy Ritchie, the pacing is certainly unorthodox, as over half the runtime is dedicated to set-up for an unexpectedly brisk final act. But all of it was so thoroughly investing that it didn't bother me.

And although a great deal of that set-up feels too rote, too similar to the many other war films seen in the last 20 years, The Covenant quickly carves out a thoroughly distinct feel for itself as it establishes its central theme of the indebtedness that comes with a spiritual bond people feel to each other.

Gyllenhaal is great as always, but the show-stealing star of this film is Dar Salim as Ahmed. He gives this film its emotional teeth and causes its hook of tension to sink into you and not let go till the end.

The pulse-pounding musical score and Ritchie's refreshingly restrained direction allow this film to truly have far more staying power than most run-of-the-mill war films.

I no idea how strongly Guy Ritchie genuinely feels about the grave wrongs that the US and UK military have done to interpreters in both Afghanistan and Iraq in recent conflicts but, if The Covenent is anything to go by, he's pretty pissed. And rightly so. The promises made to these individuals in an effort to get them to behave against the best interests of both them and their families needed to be honoured. In this story and in many real life cases, they weren't. That is shameful.

Jake Gyllenhaal is his usual reliable self, turning in a performance dripping in both commitment and duty. He's a good man and he's gonna do the right thing, no matter how far that necessitates he goes. Dar Salim - a new name to me - is an utter revelation as Ahmed, the bitter but pragmatic interpreter who puts his life on the line countless times to...yes, do the right thing.

The impact that war and each other have on these men's lives is at the very heart of this story. Though not based on any real incident to the best of my knowledge, this movie is testament to many real life situations that I have no doubt still keep men awake at night. It's an important movie and almost certainly a career high for all involved.