Private War

"A Private War" is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, the "action" scenes are gripping, edge-of-the seat stuff. The theme of 'brave war reporting' is something of interest to me ever since seeing Damien Parer's WWII work. The importance of war correspondents is definitely highlighted here.

On the other hand, the whole thing just felt quite clunky and disjointed. I didn't really learn a whole lot about the conflicts Marie Colvin was reporting on. There was often context missing to scenes and this lead to a little confusion or waning interest on my behalf. Rosamund Pike delivers a strong performance though and it was enough to draw me back in.

There was also just a whole lot of stupidity going on. Sorry, but when one of Marie's colleagues said in the film: "You've got an amazing nose for a story. But you don't have a military brain" - I couldn't help but agree wholeheartedly. It was a frustrating watch at times.

It was a serviceable film though and there's enough here to hold any journalism students' attention. It's important to have journalists of Marie's calbire in our world today.

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.

It is her film. Maybe, in few parts , more than Marie Colvin's. The role is generous, the story is well made and the message becomes clear. A film not about wars but about truth and cold idealism and passion and obsession of a war reporter . Realistic, interesting, subjective, off course. Short - just a good movie. And a beautiful demonstration of her artistic skills of Rosamund Pike.

Greetings again from the darkness. Marie Colvin was a (seemingly) fearless war correspondent obsessed with giving a voice to those forgotten during war. Were she alive today, she could not have hand-picked a better filmmaker than Matthew Heineman to tell her story. Director Heineman was Oscar nominated for CARTEL LAND (2014) and, combined with his CITY OF GHOSTS (2017), gives him two of the best ever documentaries that show what the front lines are like in both international wars and the equally dangerous wars being fought over drug territories. Heineman has carried his own camera directly into the center of those storms, while Ms. Colvin took her pen and pad. Simpatico.

Based on Marie Brenner's Vanity Fair article "Marie Colvin's Private War" (screenplay by Arash Amel), the film benefits from the extraordinary and courageous work of Ms. Colvin, and also a terrific performance from Rosamund Pike (words I've not previously written). Ms. Pike captures the extremes of Ms. Colvin's life - the atrocities of war and the self-prescribed treatment of her PTSD through vodka, and does so in a manner that always seems believable. She lets us in to a world most of us can't imagine.

As a war correspondent for Britain's Sunday Times (since 1986), Ms. Colvin told the stories we'd rather not know. In her words, "I saw it, so you don't have to." The film begins with a stunning overhead view of 2012 war-ravaged Homs Syria (destruction courtesy of Assad's soldiers) - a place that starts the film and later ends the story. We then flash back to 2001 London so we can witness Marie in society and struggling with a personal relationship. She then chooses, against her editor's (Tom Hollander) guidance to cover Sri Lanka. It's a decision that cost her an eye, while also providing her recognition as the eye-patch wearing female war reporter.

In 2003, a tip takes her to a previously undiscovered mass grave site in Fallujah. This is her first work alongside photographer Paul Conroy (played by Jamie Dornan). Having "seen more war than most soldiers", Ms. Colvin's severe alcoholism can't kill the nightmares, visions, and PTSD. After time in a clinic, she returns to work. We see her in 2009 Afghanistan and then pulling no punches when interviewing Libya's Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. During these assignments, we learn much about Ms. Colvin's personality and approach. She is rarely without a cigarette, admits to wearing Le Perla lingerie (and why), carries Martha Gellhorn's "The Face of War" as her field manual, and wins two British Foreign Journalist of the Year awards - though seeing her at the banquets is quite surreal.

Hollander's subtle performance as news editor Sean Ryan is also quite impressive. He fears for her safety (and even questions her sanity) but is in constant conflict with the need to sell newspapers - something Ms. Colvin's stories certainly did. Stanley Tucci has a role as Tony Shaw, her love interest, but despite her words, we never believe he and his sailboat are ever more than a distraction from her obsession with the front lines. The final sequence in 2012 Homs Syria is stunning, as is her final interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN.

Ms. Pike has altered her voice to mimic the deeper tone of Marie Colvin - her efforts confirmed in the final interview played at the film's end. It's quite a career boost for Ms. Pike, who has previously been known for playing ice queens in films like GONE GIRL. She captures the traumatized Marie, but also the obsession of someone whose DNA constantly drove her back to the stories that needed to be told.

Director Heineman's unique perspective combined with the cinematography of 3 time Oscar winner Robert Richardson (a favorite of Scorcese, Tarantino, and Oliver Stone) delivers a realism of war that we rarely see on screen. Mr. Richardson also shot SALVADOR (1986) and PLATOON (1986) and his work here surpasses both. The film gives us a glimpse at the psychological effects of such reporting, and a feel for the constant stress of being surrounded by tragedy and danger. This is fitting tribute to a courageous and very skilled woman, although I do wish the men weren't constantly helping her out of trucks and jeeps.

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.