Warhorse One

In Vietnam the American military establishment consumed an estimated 50,000 rounds of ammunition for every enemy killed.

Back in the days before soldiers sprayed bullets about the field of battle promiscuously (i.e. The Civil War) it took about 60 rounds to "take out" one enemy soldier. The amount of ammunition used in WW2 resulted in 25,000 rounds per casualty. Usually, you go on a combat patrol with around 210 rounds; If you get into a firefight, your ammunition can deplete very quickly.

Yet what we saw in this movie, the frogman, call-sign Warhorse Once wasted his bullets to kill enemies like he had endless supplies of bullets from his logistic arsenal. He usually kept shooting with a salvo of 3 or 4 or even 5 bullets that resulted killing nobody, but when he shot just once, there's a kill. A veteran soldier, alone in the wildness, chased by swarm of enemies should and would never waste his bullets like what we saw in this moronic unrealistic firefights, but he just wasted his bullets so mindlessly generous. It's just made me shake my head non-stop sneering.

I am going to whine a little bit about the idiots that complain it was filmed in Colorado, what you wanted it filmed in Afghanistan. The main star did everything in this movie but run the food truck. If you gave this a one/ten what will you give Megalodon., the Frenzy. Also low budget but without the acting, any special effects. I also think Warhorse One was entertaining, not an academy award winner by any means, The typical good guy that at least misses his target occasionally and the bad guys that can't hit anything. I don't watch a movie to complain if he shoots to many bullets from one magazine or if the soundtrack is not the best. All I can say about people like that, is I have more important things to be critical of.

This movie is well worth your time. There's always people out there who believe they're the next Siskel and Ebert who believe they have some great insight on cinematography or lighting or plot development. Don't listen to them. This is a fine movie, well done with plenty of action. Does the terrain look like the Colorado Rockies? Sure. Does the Taliban look like an office fantasy football league dressed in blankets? You betcha. But suspend disbelief for two hours and enjoy a low budget indie war movie. Remember, its not a documentary and never claims to be. Just enhance your calm and enjoy this film.

I really enjoyed Warhorse One but it does take a bit of patience. Hollywood action and military movies have conditioned us to expensive sets and dramatic effects. I found this to be a much more one character focused story with set intimate action sequences. Others have commented on the endless ammunition but I found the attention to detail refreshing with malfunction clearing and a more steady approach as opposed to typical action movies. The little girl is fantastic and provides the core emotion and motivation for the movie. The dialogue was a little quiet but I took this as intentional due to the evasion and covert aspect of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and it was a nice change of pace.

Ok, it's not a movie classic, and I sat down to watch it with low expectations, but this movie turned out to be quite good. I had expected a low budget botch job. Instead, what I got was a pretty well made movie, if a bit corny and by-the-numbers.

It was quite well acted by the cast, with Johnny Strong doing a good job in the title role. And you young actress who played the orphaned girl was very good, too.

The locations were good and even the Talis were quite well played and they did all speak Pushto, surprisingly.

The only annoying thing was that the cinematography got carried away with unnecessary anamorphic blue streaks that looked rather out of place, but that's a minor quibble.

If you're at a loose end, worth a look.