COVID-Cinema 2020 - The Outpost

The Outpost is the latest in my COVID-Cinema 2020 series.

With a steady stream of films now being released in Australia this is my second war film since the cinemas have reopened. The first was The Eight Hundred, a Chinese war film which I actually really enjoyed. So was this American story based on athe2012 non-fiction book, The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by Jake Tapper any good?

The film is about the Battle of Kamdesh in the war in Afghanistan. Starring hunky Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones as well as Orlando Bloom this film also ending up overseas hitting the Premium VOD in place of cinemas.

Set back in  2006, PRT Kamdesh (later renamed Combat Outpost Keating) was a U.S. Army outposts in Northern Afghanistan. The outpost was located in a remote valley surrounded by the Hindu Kush mountains. Not long into the movie you realise the base was regarded as a deathtrap for the troops based at the outpost.;

The troops stationed there faced regular Taliban attacks, culminating in one of the bloodiest American engagements of Operation Enduring Freedom. 

Throughout the film we meet some of the 53 U.S. soldiers & two Latvian military advisors based at Combat Outpost Keating. The final battle scene is huge where the US soldiers battle some 400 enemy insurgents at the Battle of Kamdesh.

It's bloody its fierce and at the end there is a respectful dedication to the real life soldiers who lost their lives during the battle. All extremely young which always seems to be the way with war. This makes it even more heartbreaking for the families left behind. The movies tries to give you a look into the lives the soldiers have left behind which adds to the emotion of the film.

If you enjoy a war film, this might get you back into the cinema. We need to support our cinemas folks, this is the third film in a row I have been the only one in the session. Yes it was an early Friday morning session, but folks let's do this. Save our local cinemas and keep some uni students within employment.

3 Stars.