09/06/23

Amazon Prime

Since the glory days of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Guy Ritchie’s cinematic status has steadily declined, reaching its nadir in his truly dreadful King Arthur epic, Legend of the Sword, a film that had me laughing for all the wrong reasons. So I approach this Amazon Original with some caution, despite having heard good things about it.

I’m happy to report that this powerful and propulsive war movie, based on a true story, represents a solid return to form for the director.

It’s March 2018 and, deep in Taliban-occupied Afghanistan, Master Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhall) is carrying out a routine vehicle inspection, which results in the detonation of an IUD device that claims the life of his interpreter. His replacement is Ahmed Abdullah (Dar Salim), a man disliked by many of the American troops, but Kinley is impressed by his quiet authority. He employs Ahmed and quickly learns to trust the man’s instincts. He also appreciates that, because Ahmed’s son was murdered by the Taliban, he’s not going to compromise his role. Like all the other native interpreters, Ahmed is lured by the promise of an American visa and passport for himself and his immediate family.

When Kinley’s team raids a possible insurgent arms cache North of Bagram air base, they find themselves overwhelmed by the sudden arrival of Taliban reinforcements. All but Kinley and Ahmed are killed in the ensuing carnage, while Kinley is so badly injured that he is close to dying. But Ahmed saves his life, loads him aboard a wooden cart and pushes him for miles across mountainous territory, risking everything in his heroic determination to get Kinley to safety.

When, weeks later, Kinley awakens in a hospital in California, he is told – much to his horror – that Ahmed is still back in Afghanistan, where he is on the Taliban’s ‘most wanted’ list. The offer of repatriation has been conveniently overlooked. Kinley owes Ahmed a debt that he feels must be repaid. After months of trying to arrange a rescue through official channels, Kinley realises that this is something he’s going to have to organise himself…

The Covenant is a tightly-directed action movie that manages to generate genuine suspense in the telling. A lengthy sequence representing Ahmed’s epic journey – framed through the memories of Kinley as he travels through the mountains of Afghanistan – shows considerable directorial flare as the events come back to a drunken Kinley in a series of near-hallucinatory images. If I’ve a criticism, it’s that neither Kinley’s wife, Caroline (Emily Beechum), nor Ahmed’s wife, Basira (Fariba Sheikhan), are given enough to do or say in the screenplay, which is written by Ritchie with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. A female perspective would be a useful addition, I think – particularly considering that Caroline is a major factor in the decision to launch a rescue attempt.

The movie’s postscript points out that hundreds of interpreters were cruelly abandoned when the American military pulled out of Afghanistan. Many of them were executed by the Taliban, while others are still in hiding. The Covenant is therefore more than just a well-directed ‘shoot ’em up.’ It’s also a damning indictment of yet another shameful chapter in recent American history.

4 stars

Philip Caveney