Sand Castle

'SAND CASTLE': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A war drama about a US Army rifleman, and his squad, who are trying to restore water to a dangerous Iraqi village. It's based on the real life experiences of it's screenwriter, Chris Roessner, and the script was featured on the 2012 Black List of unproduced screenplays. The film was directed by Fernando Coimbra, and it stars Nicholas Hoult, Logan Marshall-Green, Henry Cavill, Glen Powell, Tommy Flanagan, Beau Knapp and Neil Brown Jr.. It was released by Netflix through it's streaming site, and it's gotten mixed reviews from critics. I found it to be mostly well made, and somewhat effective, but it would have been a lot better with a little more character development.

Private Matt Ocre (Hoult) is a young rifleman in the US Army, who enlisted (in 2001) in order to get financial aid for college. When the Iraq war starts (in 2003) he desperately wants to quit though. He slams the door of a Humvee on his hand, in an attempt to get sent home even. His efforts don't succeed, and he's instead sent to Baqubah, with his squad, to repair a broken water system there. Many of the locals don't want their help though, and Matt has to witness multiple casualties to his unit. This causes him great depression and frustration, naturally.

The movie has all the makings of a good war film, it's well cast (Hoult, Marshall-Green and Cavill are all good in their roles) and it's nicely directed. It has well shot action scenes too, and seemingly effective emotional drama. I didn't know enough about the characters though, to really care for what they were going through. Technically the movie appears really well made, but it's just lacking enough character development to make it really effective.

After a small squad of soldiers is tasked with helping distribute water to an embattled town, a devastating series of consequences will change them forever. Shown from the perspective of a disillusioned private, Sand Castle is as much allegory as it is a retelling of actual events. While the main character does traverse an arc, the conclusion of this film may leave some viewers wanting something more satisfying.

This movie is straightforward and honest, and avoids the clichés that ruin many other films about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Rather than having an agenda of trying to convince us that "War is Hell" or "War is Glorious", it simply tells an interesting story of a group of soldiers who were trying to provide water for Iraqi civilians.

The cast is very good, it was nice to see some new faces instead of overexposed, worn-out actors. The direction is proficient, the combat scenes are realistic and convincing.

A decent and straightforward War movie. It's not very combat centered, but rather focuses on the soldier's internal conflicts. I've seen plenty of War films like this before and unfortunately this one doesn't stand out as that unique compared to many others. It feels like an extension of something you'd see on "Generation Kill". It's not necessarily a bad thing, because if that is your thing then you are gonna like this movie.

I will give it this though; I like the story-line of the soldier's giving water to the people in the village. That's actually one of the main missions the characters are given. I appreciate that it explores a simple story like that. Giving water to the people in need is ultimately more important than winning a war. Nicholas Hoult's character seems to find a purpose of being part of the army by doing this act of kindness because he feels that he finally does some good. So, that aspect was well portrayed in this movie.

Henry Cavill is not in the movie that much, but whenever he is on screen he plays his supporting character well. I think they should have utilized him much more, since he really was doing such a good job playing a kind of eccentric captain. A different role compared to what he has played before. The editing in some scenes distracted me. They started zooming in the image on the same shot a few times and I didn't like that. It's better to just let the scene play out in one shot. Don't start jump-cutting and zooming it in all the sudden. You have different angles for that.

The music is great. Some parts gave me "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Apocalypse Now" vibes and the end credits song is very relaxing. So, the movie leaves you with a nice feeling because of the music. It's not bad as I said, just a tad underwhelming. You can watch it and enjoy just fine.

The story was an accurate portrayal of the environment and the people in the conflict zones. It was based on the true events of the film's writer. Nicholas Hoult did a good job. I saw it as minimalist. He spared us the over dramatic self reflection/moral dilemma that is too common in writing or film. I thought throughout the movie that it sure looks like Iraq; it was filmed in Jordan. The areas I were in looked like images from the Mars Pathfinder. There were rocks, clay, sand and more rocks. During the winter, it was mostly orange. This is not a Hollywood retread or an action film. I'm glad that they had no flashbacks/flash forwards to home/U.S. Coming home and life after is a different story. The music score was subtle and the end title was really good. Similar to Brian Eno. Great to see another quality Netflix original.