The Hornet's Nest

At its core I love what this doccie does: it presents some front line perspectives of American soldiers fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. That in itself is impressive and at times harrowing.

But then the movie wraps itself in a jacket of awful ideas. The soundtrack feels ripped from every reality show made in the past few years. I almost started to expect a host from something like Fear Factor to show up. The storytelling is also very convoluted. It skims details and personalities, briefly introducing them before running to the next plot point.

While it goes out of its way to highlight the sacrifices made by the soldiers, The Hornet's Nest gives little clarity on what is going on half of the time. Other than bring across the intensity of firefights, much more isn't revealed.

But my biggest problems are the cheap narrative tricks. At times moments are made more dramatic than they are, especially if it involves one of the journalists potentially getting shot. This is done twice and both times it's more a trick of editing than what actually happened.

I'd liken this to Ross Kemp's Afghanistan doccies: intense, but vapid and a little bit exploitative. You don't come out of The Hornet's Nest learning much, other than Americans are great soldiers. If that is the point, this succeeds. But it could have done so much more with its material instead of feeling like a made-for-reality-TV special.

The best parts are when neither Boettcher is on camera.

Could have done without the contrived father/son drama at the start of the film, it was so bad I almost stopped watching it. Luckily I kept on watching it, it really picked up steam in the second half when the film was devoted to the 101st in operation strong eagle III. It really highlighted the sacrifice of the soldiers and their willingness to give all.

I was a civilian contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, the losses and ceremonies commemorating them were always sad. The professionalism of the US troops, despite the politics and questionable nature of the Iraq War always made me proud.

Can't believe the stupidity in these reviews. Giving a bad review because you don't understand or recognize the basic subject matter of the documentary? Smdh. You people are a disgrace to Americans. No wonder the world thinks we're idiots. You people do all you can to prove we are. Smfh.

The wars our soldiers have endured in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve the best possible understanding by an informed citizenry. This documentary is about as close to being shot in combat as you will get to see. Take off your political hat and just watch and listen to the bullets fly past. Men are killed in this documentary (though you don't get to see the incident). Men die because they can't be rescued in time. You get to see heart break their friends, sergeants and officers feel at the loss. I also recommend you read/listen to "The Good Soldiers" by David Filkens about our troops in Iraq. If you do all that--then you can really say the words: "Thank you for your service!"