We finally got Guy Ritchie to at least briefly stop making movies in which he unsuccessfully tries to repeat the formula from “Locks, Stocks” and “Snatch” and to fuck off his irritating friend Jason Statham. The result is an exceptional combination of a war drama and an action thriller, with which he once again showed that he is a master of the craft. Unlike World War II and Vietnam, there aren’t many quality films about the recent American interventions in Iraq or Afghanistan, so “The Covenant” is a pleasant surprise. The story was designed by Ritchie based on real events from 2018, and it is the film that offers many surprises.
I had the impression in the first half of the film that Ritchie decided to go the almost Carpenterian way and make a really simple action thriller about the problem in which the US Marine John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his new Afghan translator Ahmed (Iraqi-born actor Dar Salim should be familiar to everyone who follows Danish cinema). During one mission, the Americans will fall into a Taliban trap, and while it seemed like “The Covenant” could be a follow-up movie about soldiers stuck deep in enemy territory, it turns into something much more and much better. I’m really glad that Ritchie has finally moved away from his long-worn style, because he made a striking combination of action and drama that is critical of American interventionism and American false promises to all those peoples and nationalities that they have been liberating for decades.
Immediately after the invasion of Afghanistan, the Americans were full of promises to all those Afghans whom they invited to work for them as translators, interpreters and guides. All of them were promised American visas for all of them and their families, and when, after almost 20 years of war, Uncle Sam picked up the pieces, the vast majority of all these people were left to fend for themselves, most often sentenced to death because the Taliban declared them traitors and collaborators of the enemy. And for that Sergeant Kinley will prove to be much bigger and much better than his country, but he will have a very good reason for it.
In recent years, I’ve tended to steer clear of most Anglo-American action films because they’ve mostly turned into the kind of childish stuff my mom would say wouldn’t be eaten by a buttered dog. And in this regard, “The Covenant” rises above that average, although it is clear that the story is quite dramatized and that it is simply impossible to expect an action film today without those Bata Živojinović situations, it was a dynamic, exciting film that avoids falling into pathos . The action or rather the war scenes are exceptional, the camera is extraordinary and we often have an aerial photograph to get a better insight into the space and the place, and the surroundings of the Spanish city of Alicante “enacted” Bagram, Mazar-e Sharif and how all those Afghan places are called But most importantly, Ritchie is in fine form and indeed “The Covenant” was a high-quality action thriller with a completely unexpected dramatic depth.