Kill Zone

Lt Drake served in Iraq during the height of the war and is unable to overcome what he did while there. He has been discharged and returned to normal civilian life but as he is haunted by these events he has to find a solution. He is enrolled in counselling session and this starts to rebuild his shattered life. When he is visited by CIA soldiers and given the task of killing a former sniper gone awol, everything is set to come back and haunt him again.

I remember the first time I saw Apocalypse Now. I loved its cast and the complex meta-physical interplay that crafted a powerful dynamic of push and pull. This was between two men, who had been fractured by war and the modern world. Those two men were literally out in the wilderness and searching not only for each other but themselves also. I felt the same with this film in some respects. I am not saying that it is of that calibre, not even remotely in that ball park but it is a film of great merit. Merit that is for a film made by people that have ambition beyond the bounds of the standard fair. You see that this type of film can often be stuck in a rigid framework that guarantee funding and also exhibition.A 3 act structure with say action every 15 minutes or so, a few stars and a current issue or event are the usual choices for such films.This suffocates the film maker’s and scriptwriter choices, as they have to compensate for these pieces of the jigsaw

What we see here is a director that has a very clever touch and two lead actors that come into their own. The director has superb choices and reveals a very skilled film maker that occasionally allows for some very creative film making. Creative in the sense that they are alternative to the current film language and are used to ensure they fit but fit with a level of unique insight. This is hampered a little by the voice over narration but this was probably added later as the producers might have felt it was incoherent! Foolish them I say! Okay now the actors are very good and give us rounded performances that are convincing. Shame that this will probably be in the sale bin shortly as it is a very good piece of film that deserves at least a passing look.