The Yellow Birds

The mechanics of this movie were good, the quality of the movie was good, the acting itself was just OK but a little bit lacking, for that it barely scratches a 5 for me. First let's get a pure aesthetic thing out of the way. If you are going to make a war film, get the actual equipment right. The U.S. Army uses Blackhawk helicopters and have for quite awhile now. Go to the military's public affairs office, find their office that works with Hollywood and the film industry and arrange for some Blackhawks not Huey's. The movie comes off as high quality enough to take that step. Oh, and you are not going to have those gun truck, Humvees with turrets, supporting you without someone in the hatch with some fire power.

Now. The acting here was just OK, not great, maybe good. The scenes though and the whole plot reveal at the end...it is just hogwash. Plain and simple. This is not how soldiers behave and not what I (as a veteran) can tell you, would even be imaginable. The platoon/ company/ chain of command dynamic is completely absent. The squad dynamic is altogether wrong, and those are huge plot holes. The writer has only a small vague understanding of how men and women in our armed forces behave, and interact with each other and how military operations work. I am trying not to give away any spoilers but the incident in the film is something that would be a million to one shot of happening in real life, and the way the follow on was carried out would have even longer odds. That doesn't even get to the odds that soldiers would think in this way, let alone carry out. Frankly, I can't even imagine a scenario where anything like this could actually even be conceived or even began to be carried out without hitting immediate large roadblocks that would cease it immediately in today's military. Again I can give it a 5 on some of it's cinematic merits but ultimately it doesn't overcome huge realistic obstacles. I don't believe it has any political/ideological objectives as far as being pro or anti-war. If it did it fails on that but I'm hoping that there wasn't one. Mostly this just suffers from a real lack of realism which draws in a lack of real connection and feeling. If they changed it into a more entertaining action movie that might make it more passable, but for the drama they were trying to portray it was overall lacking.

This film tells the story of two young soldiers and their mothers, who are devastated by the war in different ways.

It is a powerful anti war film, even though most of the time there is no blood and gore. The psychological effects of war on the soldiers and the families are profound, and the film portrays the feelings effectively. I'm also very glad to see two very famous actresses in this film.

Yellow Birds was a flawed movie from start to finish. Despite the story being interesting and the quality of production being above average, this was an easily forgettable war movie. To start, it was exceptionally slow to start picking up, which is never a good sign (especially when the movie is so short). We never saw their friendship grow or really any character development occur. We were never provided with a clear reason as to why they decided to hid that truth and cover it up. And we have no idea how it was found out that they did that. Just loads of missing information throughout. Not a fan.

Not a war film. But a film about war. Not the best. But decent. And good reflection of good intentions. It is a drama presenting two young men in Iraq war. Theirs mothers. The traumas. The choice of one. And the confession of the other. Sure, it is not real convincing. But, after so manyy great war films, "The Yellow Birds" has the purpose to remind the frame of heroism , sacrifice, lost of the other. And, in this sense, it does a good job. Because, against its status of sketch, it has the virtue to present, in the right nuances, a tragedy who, in this case, escapes from the circle of special effects and easy melodrama or heavy patriotism. A decent film. With few great scenes.

The movie was really good ,, wasn't perfect and yes maybe some errors here and there ,, but over all the movie was purposeful , based on a true story and really emotional ,., makes you think how you really can't feel what these who have been to war have felt back in Iraq or when they got home ..

The casting was also good ,, wanted to see more of Jennifer Aniston and Toni Collette but again it's not their story to tell ,, it's the soldiers. Tye Sheridan, since his X-men depute back in 2015 he's been doing great ,, and Alden Ehrenreich did good too,.

Again, don't really care if there wasn't flat screen TVs in 2003 ,, just you know first flat screen came out in 1997 and become popular in the early 2000's ,, I actually noticed the Hajjis in the movie they speak Moroccan accent not Iraqi , i know because i know the language but again it didn't matter... the story itself was good and had a goal ,, War hurts everyone and keeps on hurting even after it ends, so don't start one in the first place.

finale thought,, watch it , it is recommended and sometimes you need to read more than one review.