"Recommend an Afghanistan war movie" Topic

I've seen a number of movies set in Afghanistan, but very few based on the current/recent war there.

Colonial era:
The Man Who Would Be King
Carry On Up the Khyber
The High Road to China (Brian Blessed as the Afghan chieftain!)

Soviet War:
9 Rota (9 Company)
The Beast
Rambo III
The Living Daylights
Spies Like Us

Taliban Era:
Osama (girl dresses as boy to support her widowed mother)
Kandahar (woman tries to travel to Kandahar to prevent her sister from committing suicide)
The Kite Runner
Gandahar (crew of Russian cargo plane is held captive for a year in Kandahar)

But nothing for events there after 2001! What should I add to my playlist?

Thanks in advance!

Restrepo is very good.

imdb.com/title/tt1559549

Pete Wilson's War

never heard of this one

Armadillo
imdb.com/title/tt1640680

The problem is separating Afghanistan and Iraq after 2001.

Does American Sniper count?

Does Zero Dark Thirty count?

Lions for Lambs
Lone Survivor

Yeah there is not much movie wise on Afghanistan. There are some good documentaries. Restrepo and Korengal being two. The Fighting Season is pretty good as well. I always thought Jake Tappers The Outpost would make a great movie along the lines of Blackhawk Down.

The Beast – Russian tank gets lost in the mountains. Gritty

Thanks. I've heard good things about Restrepo and it is on my list of movies to find, and thanks OFM as I've seen Charlie Wilson's War but forgot to mention it in my OP.

The Beast is already on my list.

For me, Iraq and Afghanistan are different. Are there aspects of Afghanistan in American Sniper? then I'll add it to the list. And I'll add Zero Dark Thirty to the list as the line between Pakistan and Afghanistan is blurry (Afghanstan doesn't recognise the Durand Line as a valid border with Pakistan).

And I'll see about Armadillo, Korengal, Fighting Season.

Cheers!

The makers of Restrepo went back and filmed Korengal in the same valley.

Does Big Al go into Afghanistan in the movies?
Alexander The Great (1956)?
Alexander (2004)?

I needed to look.

American Sniper/Chris Kyle was only in Iraq

Lone Survivor takes place in Afghanistan

Zero Dark thirty is all over the place, but I guess it mostly takes place in Pakistan? with the black sites in Afghanistan and the Camp Chapman attack link and the final base camp in Jalalabad from where the Seals train and leave.

I enjoyed Lone Survivor link

Armadillo is actually also a documentary, shot during the spring of 2009, in the Upper Gereskh Valley.

It portrays a Danish mechanized infantry platoon deployed in a small firebase at the edge of the vegetation belt (better known as the Green Zone) along the Helmand river.

There are some really cool scenes showing Piranha IIIc OHW's, and even Leopard 2A5 MBT'S, in action.

The Danish Jaeger Corps makes a short appearance, as well.

It also has some quite disturbing scenes of close combat between infantry and insurgents during a aggressive patrol.

The documentary crew stayed at the Armadillo camp for en extended period of time to get the shots together, and got real close to some of the guys…

However, be aware that it includes an… interesting…. scene of a party with loads of booze and a stripper supposedly happening just before they shipped out.
In reality, the party, AND the stripper, was planned and paid for by the film company (Not requisted by the soldiers), and was held after they all got back home…

I never watched The Living Daylights, but IMHO The Beast is the best out of the Soviet list in the OP.

I think the OFM means Charlie Wilson's War.

I never watched The Living Daylights, but IMHO The Beast is the best out of the Soviet list in the OP.

The Living Daylights was a Timothy Dalton-era Bond flick. Not one of the better Bond movies, and certainly not an accurate afghanistan movie either! (Probably about as accurate as Spies Like Us…)

The Beast was good, very intense – not sure if I'd rate it as better or worse than 9 Company (which was pretty much Full Metal Jacket with Soviets).

Hyena Road
imdb.com/title/tt4034452

Afghan Luke
link

Kajaki
imdb.com/title/tt3622120

The Patrol
link

There are good documentaries on Youtube, especially British ones. Search "Our War" for a good one.

Thanks, RJ, I'll see if I can find those ones. Looks like I'll have to wait a few months for Hyena Road (and just pray that it's better than Gross' overblown Passchendaele)!

"9 Company" at least had actual explosions, not CGI effects.

9 Company suffers from the story being ridiculous and made up (when the real events were plenty dramatic). It IS a good flick though.

Lone Survivor is a pretty good action movie but I've had some knowledgeable people get pretty mad about it, so I dunno.

I can now add Armadillo to my list and I'm making my way through Zero Dark 30.

In my initial list I got the 'g' in the wrong place for Kandagar (Russian cargo plane crew held hostage by Taliban).

Cheers

W

Kajaki is superb. A must see and hard to watch.

If they ever make a film of the life of Mick Flynn (from his book Bullet Magnet) link it'll make a great piece of cinema – including the bit on Afghanistan.

But The man who would be King is great too.

John T