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User Comments for: A Private War

freinhar says...
5 years ago
This is a hard movie to comment on, because it chronicles something of importance, but at the same time never seems to dig any deeper than surface level events.

It's an entire movie about Marie Colvin, in which we learn very little about Marie Colvin. What drove her? Who knows.

Rosamond Pike's performance is good, but again keeps us at quite a distance from actually getting to know the character. This is clearly intentional. I just don't think it worked - for me.

This movie tries but fails to establish a meaningful relationship between the central character and the horrific conflicts she's drawn to, but we never learn why. And we don't really gain any insight into the people whose lives are being decimated by civil war.

There are movies that are far more effective at chronicling the extent of human misery, and the horrors of war. This one did not end up enhancing my perspective in a meaningful way.
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faithful soul says...
4 years ago
Marie Colvin was a brave woman, but the film never truly gets under her skin. A documentary might have been better, especially considering the director's previous credentials. It's not a bad film. however, and it is worth a watch, if only for another painful reminder of the horrors of the Syrian conflict.
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Reply by independentmovieloverrr
3 years ago
@faithful-soul agree with you 100%
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KD6-3.7 says...
4 years ago
Matthew Heineman directed the Hell out of this film, I can't wait to see what else he works on.

The performances are pretty great all around but the script is what lets this film down. It's a good script it's just a tad confusing at times and doesn't feel like it goes deep enough into this characters psyche or the conflicts she's covering.

Everything else is great though, the set pieces are brilliantly directed, I love the use of practical effects throughout (only minor CGI that I could tell), brilliant cinematography and a quiet, but effective score.

Another commentator here mentioned it, but a lot of biopics stretch out material so they have enough for a film, others have to rush some things along and never go far enough, this film falls into the latter. Entire years are skipped along with very little room to breathe.
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rmgebhardt says...
5 years ago
Some biopics have to stretch out the material they're based on to get enough for a movie. Others, like this, feel like they could have given you much, much more. I knew bits and pieces about Marie Colvin, but not much beyond that. In this overview of her more famous reporting years, you get little bites of her and her work, but I found myself often craving a bit more. In an era of bloated runtimes, it may sound odd to ask for it, but I would have been just fine with another 30-40 minutes to get some more depth, context, and background on the various time periods covered. Rosamund Pike and Jamie Dornan are both quite good in their roles, and the supporting cast is fine, but feel a bit one-note at times. In a time when reporters are reviled by a subset of society that think they're all hacks making up "fake news", it's good to watch something that reminds you that they're often truth seekers and explorers who want to discover what is hidden or unknown.
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jarvis-8243417 says...
5 years ago
A Private War is gritty and raw character drama about Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin. The film follows the last ten years of Colvin’s life reporting on conflicts in Sri Lonka, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, along with her struggles with PTSD and substance abuse. Rosamund Pike gives an incredible performance, really transforming herself into her character. However, the script is rather weak and doesn’t do a particularly good job at getting at what drove her to do the work she did, or chose the places she did, or what made her voice unique from others. Yet while it has some weaknesses, A Private War is a powerful and provocative film about the life of a war correspondent.
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maphiagurl says...
CONTAINS SPOILERS
5 years ago
She set herself on collision course with destiny, a horrific kind of destiny. So much to think through.
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FinFan says...
5 years ago
This might be a movie about a woman who did important things. Truth be told I never heard about her before. Sadly, this movie doesn't want to make me know more. She comes across as a very obnoxious, un-likeable person. Her motives are not very clear. Her past, background story - which could have shed some light as to why she is that way - is obscure. The movie goes to fast back and forth from the combat zones to "normal" life. The timejumps are to big.
And than there is Rosamund Pike. I have seen her last couple of movies and she did not convince me in any one of them. I know she's been nominated a lot but I think, in regards to this movie, she is trying way to hard to sell this character.
Overall I lost interest in the story and the person about halfway through the movie. I watched it to the end but that's about it. I wouldn't say it's a bad movie as such, just one of those that don't reach me.
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violetlemon1 says...
2 years ago
It was not an action flick, but a film that depicted the tenuous and difficult life of a celebrated foreign correspondent. It was not easy to watch, with its realism and unforgiving nature helping with engagement. In addition, Rosamund Pike and the entire cast gave incredible performances that helped this film in its slower areas, which is where the acting shined the most. As a whole, after finishing the film, all I can say is that Marie Colvin was a certified legend.
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