Nick Clement is back again with The Outpost review. A movie currently available on streaming platforms today.
The Outpost, a hard-hitting combat film from director Rod Lurie (The Contender, The Last Castle, Nothing But the Truth) and screenwriters Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy (Patriots Day, The Fighter, The Finest Hours), joins the ranks of cinematic war-time narratives, including Black Hawk Down, Lone Survivor, Hamburger Hill, and We Were Soldiers, depicting American troops completely outnumbered by heavily-armed enemies, with a seemingly insurmountable amount of challenges to overcome in order for the squads of soldiers to stay alive.
Based on CNN journalist Jake Tapper’s non-fiction account of 2009’s Battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan, the film carries a square-jawed sense of swiftness, and once the violent action gets started, it hardly relents, creating a blitzkrieg of bullets, blood, explosions, and shrapnel.
It’s 300 vs. about 50, and when the dust settles, you can bet that some serious moments of heroism will have been highlighted.
Starring a rock-solid ensemble cast where not one actor overpowered any of the others, there’s a uniformity to the performances which, along with the rugged production values, creates a thoroughly believable sense of verisimilitude, and the muscular cinematography by Lorenzo Senatore (Megan Leavey, 2019’s Hellboy) never flinches for a moment, utilizing more than one super-long-take when covering the many visceral action set-pieces, while emphasizing clear spatial relationships between the warring sides of combatants.
Scott Eastwood gives off the same gruff and manly screen presence that his iconic father demonstrated in his early years, while Orlando Bloom (welcome back!), Caleb Landry Jones (love this guy), Milo Gibson, Bobby Lockwood, and everyone else in the supporting cast nailed their parts.
Lurie’s one of those fascinating filmmakers in that, before he started making movies, he was an esteemed critic; all of his films have centered on complex characters and he brings a certain intelligence to all of his motion pictures.
It’s telling that a topical effort like The Outpost would require more than 20 credited producers to get made in this day and age.
Films that showcase real events with tragic consequences are getting harder to sell to mainstream audiences, despite the many compelling aspects that these stories often provide.
So it’s all the more impressive to learn that The Outpost was the #1 downloaded new film on its opening weekend (it was originally set for a 500 theater release on July 3rd with a simultaneous VOD launch but COVID-19 nixed the theatrical plans).
The Outpost review by Nick Clement
Our Rating
Summary
I have a feeling that over the rest of the summer it’s going to become a go-to title for people looking for something exciting.
Well worth a watch!
