A War Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

A War Blu-ray Movie Review

A Soldier's Story

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 9, 2016

The events depicted in A War were inspired by an interview with a Danish soldier returning to Afghanistan for his third tour. Writer/director Tobias Lindholm was struck by the soldier's comment that the prospect of being killed didn't frighten him nearly as much as the fear that he might be prosecuted for actions taken in the heat of battle. For Lindholm, who was already contemplating a film about Denmark's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is the nation's first military operation since World War II, the soldier's sentiment opened a window into a world of moral complexity far removed from daily headlines, which the director proceeded to explore with the guidance and participation of Danish soldiers, their relatives, various technical advisors and even a Taliban veteran. "I have always liked American Vietnam War movies", Lindholm has said, "and see them as a way for the American society to collectively process a trauma. This film is my stab at processing Denmark's presence in Iraq and Afghanistan—a process I don't think has remotely begun."

A War was Denmark's official submission to the 2016 Academy Awards, where it was selected as one of five finalists for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. (It lost to Son of Saul.)

A War follows the routine activities of a Danish combat unit stationed in the Helmand Province of Afganhistan. The company commander is Claus Michael Petersen (Pilou Asbæk, who played the ship's cook in Lindholm's previous feature, A Hijacking). As Claus and his unit patrol the surrounding territory in an effort to find and eliminate both buried explosives and the Taliban insurgents who planted them, they are keenly aware of being perpetual targets. They are also aware that, while their ostensible mission is to protect the local populace, their ability to do so is limited by the official rules of engagement. When a local man whose daughter has received medical aid from the Danish troops brings his family to the unit's camp seeking shelter from Taliban retaliation, Claus is forced to turn away the family, despite the man's pleas. Not surprisingly, the outcome is tragic.

At home in Denmark, Claus's wife, Maria (Tuva Novotny), struggles to maintain the family household and care for the couple's three young children. Modern technology permits daily phone calls between Claus and his family, but these only make his absence more keenly felt. The elder son has developed problems at school, which Maria must address on her own, just as she handles every daily chore and mishap.

Lindholm observes these events and interactions with the same cool detachment he applied in A Hijacking. In the Afghanistan scenes, the camera frequently assumes the perspective of one of the helmet-cams worn by members of Claus's unit. The strategy pays off when the soliders are ambushed and pinned down by heavy machine-gun and artillery fire, as the first-person POV plunges the viewer into the chaos and confusion of battle, where actions are driven by a mix of fear and adrenaline. When one of his men is badly wounded, Claus makes the fateful decision to request an airstrike to provide cover for a medical evacuation. The unit escapes, but there are civilian casualties, and Claus finds himself yanked from duty and sent home to face criminal charges.

In A War's tense third act, Claus's actions are dissected and scrutinized in a courtroom. As a tough government prosecutor presents photographs, helmet-cam recordings and testimony reluctantly extracted from members of Claus's unit before an impassive panel of judges, his attorney attempts to poke holes in the prosecution's case. (The lawyer is played by Søren Malling with the same remote professionalism he brought to his performance as the shipping CEO negotiating with Somali pirates in A Hijacking.) While the procedures differ substantially from their American counterparts, the sequence effectively captures the surreal sensation of having one's actions reinterpreted with the benefit of hindsight that will be familiar to anyone who has ever been involved in an adversary proceeding. Meanwhile, the former commander must sit silently replaying and questioning his decision, tormented by the knowledge that his dedication to protecting the lives of his fellow soldiers resulted in the death of children as innocent as his own.

In both style and subject matter, A War recalls the Sebastian Younger and Tim Hetherington documentary, Restrepo, and its sequel, Korengal, but Lindholm's inclusion of the homefront also aligns his film with works like American Sniper and Stop-Loss, which trace the ripple effects of warfare beyond the battlefield. "A number on the news, how many people have died, can be hard to relate to", the director has said. "But if you picture all the people who are directly affected by just one person being stationed, it's a whole different story."

A War Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A War was shot on the Arri Alexa by Lindholm's usual cinematographer, Magnus Nordenhof Jønck. As in their previous collaboration, A Hijacking, the team has opted for a documentary style using natural light and a muted palette that hasn't been intensified or prettified in post-production. If anything, the image appears to have been roughened in post-production to suggest 16-millimeter combat footage. The Alexa's usual virtues of detail and clarity are readily visible, but the image also has an un-Alexa-like texture that approximates fine film grain. However, this appears to be an intentional effect, and not a flaw in Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. In the Afghanistan sequences, a slight yellow tint is frequently evident, presumably to convey the heat of the desert and to help distinguish these scenes from those set at home. Chilly grays and blues dominate the courtroom scenes, suggesting the cold light of day in which actions taken in the heat of the moment are second-guessed.

Magnolia has mastered A War with an average bitrate of 25.003 Mbps, which is adequate for digitally originated footage. While the encode has been capably performed, it is worth noting that the film arrives on a BD-50 with over 16 GB of unused space. By contrast, A Hijacking clocked in at 36 Mbps. Magnolia's continued retreat from its previous habit of maximizing bitrates and using all the available digital real estate is regrettable.

A War Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A War arrives with a deliberate and thoughtful 5.1 soundtrack encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA. By far the most sonically aggressive sequence is that of Claus and his unit being ambushed, with loud explosions, automatic weapons fire and flying debris. Consistent with the helmet-cam POV, the voices of company members are heard from all directions, left, right, front and back, and the audio perspective shifts continuously as the camera darts through the action. Non-battle scenes are accompanied by a subtle but continuous sense of the environment appropriate to each scene. While I can't comment on the clarity of the Danish dialogue, it is appropriately positioned and prioritized. The sparse score is credited to Sune Wagner, former singer of the Danish rock band Psyched Up Janis.

An alternate English dub track is included, also in lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1.

A War Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes of A War (1080p; 1.78:1; 5:04): Interviews with director Lindholm and actor Asbæk accompany behind-the-scenes footage. In Danish with English subtitles.



• Interview with Director Tobias Lindholm (1080i; 1.78:1; 16:30): Interviewed in English, Lindholm places A War in the context of recent Danish history and recounts the film's background, development, casting and production.



• Interview with Colonel Arnold Strong (1080i; 1.78:1; 1:03): Reactions to the film from a member of the U.S. Army Reserve.



• Los Angeles Film Screening Reactions (1080i; 1.78:1; 0:58): According to the titles, many of the participants are current and former members of the U.S. military.



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.85:1; 2:32): The advertising tagline ("In a war the front lines are everywhere") is provocative but doesn't quite capture how the film connects the battlefield and the homefront.



• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment: The disc includes trailers for The Wave, High Rise, Gridlocked and Synchronicity, as well as promos for the Charity Network and AXS TV. These also play at startup, where they can be skipped with the chapter forward button.



• BD-Live: As of this writing, attempting to access BD-Live produces the message "Check back later for updates".

A War Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

By design, A War avoids engaging with the causes and issues underlying the war in Afghanistan. Lindholm is much more interested in what happens after the decision is made to send soldiers into harm's way, as bonds of interdependence are formed from mutual danger, conflicting priorities are juggled with life-or-death consequences, and actions taken on instinct produce unexpected and dire results, both on the battlefield and at home. Highly recommended.