Essential Killing 2010 Poland

March 17, 2011 3 Comments

★★★★★★★★★★3/10

A man kills 3 Americans in Afghanistan with a rocket grenade. It’s unclear whether the man is Al Qaeda, Taliban, or a foreign fighter. Captured, the unnamed man is whisked off to some black-op base where he’s interrogated and tortured. While being transported to another site, he escapes. Totally disoriented, he’s gone from the desert to a land covered in snow, is heavily forested, and mountainous. This is essentially a Vietnam POW escape movie but in reverse, with the Americans as the bad guys.

Acting wise the man (Vincent Gallo of Brown Bunny fame) was… well he was just some guy running around the forest. There is hardly any talking or even a lot of close-ups. So you really have no idea of what’s going on or the motivations of the escaping man. Other than escaping his trackers, it’s fairly unambiguous if the man is running to something. Is he trying to get home, does he want to continue terrorism, or maybe he’s one of those noble terrorists. No one knows.

Technically the film is amateurish. I rarely ever note this, but there was some very poor sound work. The camera work is also quite shaky, with simple compositions of shots. The creative force behind the movie is Jerzy Skolimowski, a known auteur of little dialogue. Somehow, he’s taken a thriller and sucked the excitement out of it. It’s slow and lacks emotion.

This isn’t a good movie, the only novelty is that the protagonist is a Taliban/Al Qaeda/foreign fighter. However, if you took out the first 15 minutes of the film in Afghanistan and being processed by Americans, this would have been simply a prison escape movie. Mind you it would still be a poor one.

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Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, dogs, escape, film, foreign fighter, forest, info, movie, Poland, review, Taliban, terrorist, track, winter Action/Adventure, Afghanistan, Middle East, Poland

3 Comments → “Essential Killing 2010 Poland”

mencken 2 years ago Reply

Wow. I don’t see how Gallo’s performance can be so easily dismissed and I very much disagree with the technical complaints. This review also seems to miss the ambiguity of the character’s identity and guilt or innocence which is key to the whole thing by assuming he is “Al Qaeda, Taliban, or a foreign fighter” when he might not be a fighter or terrorist at all — along with both him and the Americans at the beginning being both hunter and prey at the same time. I found the movie far more nuanced than described but to each their own.
- Dave 2 years ago Reply
  
  Hi! Fair enough comments. I did get the ambiguity of the character, that’s exactly why I said it’s unclear. Yeah the film and Gallo’s performance just didn’t do it for me. I may take another look at this film though because of your comments.
  - mencken 2 years ago Reply
    
    Hi! I found a lot in it personally but can see how it won’t ‘connect’ for a many or most people. I can also see how if Gallo’s performance didn’t do it for you, the whole thing could fall apart.
    I liked that it could be reworked in different ways and didn’t have to be over obvious with a normal narrative. I’ve read Skolimowski makes movies “to please” himself and this one doesn’t strike my as having commercial considerations high on its priority list.
    Glad to know my little missive might get you to reconsider it though!