The Hornet's Nest

As most pointed out...the first half of this was horrible...however if you can get to the final 30-40 minutes...it's increible. The final 2-5 minutes are absolutely heart shattering...

I can't bring myself to give it less than 8/10...only because the men highlighted here who gave their lives may never get another chance to be seen/known. We all need to take that into account, if this is the only time we get to see their story...it deserves to be seen, and if we crush the rating to less than 6.0...that's going to be extremely low for a documentary, and guess what?? People will skip it...

So 10/10 for those brave soldiers...and 0/10 for the man attempting to make their glory his and his sons!!! Shame on him. Those men deserved the FULL time to be known!!!! They could've spent that time early on telling us about these young men we lost...no one cares about you and your sons relationship, pal!!!

At its core I love what this doccie does: it presents some front line perspectives of American soldiers fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. That in itself is impressive and at times harrowing.

But then the movie wraps itself in a jacket of awful ideas. The soundtrack feels ripped from every reality show made in the past few years. I almost started to expect a host from something like Fear Factor to show up. The storytelling is also very convoluted. It skims details and personalities, briefly introducing them before running to the next plot point.

While it goes out of its way to highlight the sacrifices made by the soldiers, The Hornet's Nest gives little clarity on what is going on half of the time. Other than bring across the intensity of firefights, much more isn't revealed.

But my biggest problems are the cheap narrative tricks. At times moments are made more dramatic than they are, especially if it involves one of the journalists potentially getting shot. This is done twice and both times it's more a trick of editing than what actually happened.

I'd liken this to Ross Kemp's Afghanistan doccies: intense, but vapid and a little bit exploitative. You don't come out of The Hornet's Nest learning much, other than Americans are great soldiers. If that is the point, this succeeds. But it could have done so much more with its material instead of feeling like a made-for-reality-TV special.

Could have done without the contrived father/son drama at the start of the film, it was so bad I almost stopped watching it. Luckily I kept on watching it, it really picked up steam in the second half when the film was devoted to the 101st in operation strong eagle III. It really highlighted the sacrifice of the soldiers and their willingness to give all.

I was a civilian contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, the losses and ceremonies commemorating them were always sad. The professionalism of the US troops, despite the politics and questionable nature of the Iraq War always made me proud.

I have always had the highest respect for people serving in our military, but this film really does bring home and highlight what happens on the battlefield. Regardless of your political views or your opinion of whether the US should be engaged in a specific war, this documentary puts you in the battle and shows you the true brotherhood and love that soldiers share among each other.

It also really shows how close soldiers get with one another and how they use jokes and other tactics to handle the extreme stress they face on the battlefield. When a soldier gets hit, you can tell that every one of them will do whatever it takes not to leave their brothers behind in battle.

The ending of this movie really stung. Having lost some of their buddies during a battle, you are drawn into the intense emotion that is felt by each soldier. There is so much love and respect among them all and it really drives home just how selfless many of these soldiers are and what they have to deal with during an intense engagement.

These women and men put everything on the line so we can enjoy a better way of life and a better society -- they are all true heroes and this documentary is a powerful reminder of that fact.

The wars our soldiers have endured in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve the best possible understanding by an informed citizenry. This documentary is about as close to being shot in combat as you will get to see. Take off your political hat and just watch and listen to the bullets fly past. Men are killed in this documentary (though you don't get to see the incident). Men die because they can't be rescued in time. You get to see heart break their friends, sergeants and officers feel at the loss. I also recommend you read/listen to "The Good Soldiers" by David Filkens about our troops in Iraq. If you do all that--then you can really say the words: "Thank you for your service!"