A Private War

R. Pike delivers in everything she does!

I feel that, like with many other recent biopics, there probably wasn't enough source material for a story but they found a way. A character study lacking momentum and an overall connective theme, other than the character whom the film is based on, with the conclusion almost vindicating the path taken.

Rosamund Pike is truly marvelous in her role as late journalist Marie Colvin. The depth and breadth of this film makes it hard to believe it's based on a magazine article. The story touches on numerous, highly critical topics while not overwhelming the audience with too many messages. It's a film one needs to be prepared and in the mood for, as it's not for light viewing or the faint of heart. I would absolutely watch this again.

Pike is great, but the movie never coalesces around a coherent idea of who Colvin really was outside of vague ponderings about her wanting to do good and something about trauma. One feels that the real Colvin deserved something better.

A god unto herself. Unwilling to take counsel from other professionals. "You don't have a military brain," a colleague tells her. So was the craft worth the indiscretion? She was abiding in pure evil. She decided to die a martyr's death along with the Syrian civilians. Her empathy, early on, became sympathy. And sympathy killed her. But it also killed her colleagues beholden to her. And we celebrate that? Yes. Society still likes it's gladiators, and the press likes their money. This movie epitomizes the worst of everyone, and celebrates it with coverage.

It is quite a well made movie but my main beef is that, like most war films these days, it is a US war machine narrative that accepts since proven lies and fabrications as fact.

A boring movie and waste of time.

I nearly fell asleep watching this snoozer of a biopic. Director Matthew Heineman's war drama biopic of Marie Colvin entitled A Private War (2018) is a terrible film. Rosamund Pike cannot save this movie to be honest. Heineman does not know what he wants to say as a message. I think he wants to honor Colvin's bravery as a war correspondent, but A Private War does the opposite as it demonstrates how she was a reckless fool, who dove head first into active combat zones only to lose an eye and ultimately her life. Her work was not actually all that important as war still rages on in The Middle East and she died for nothing. The film skips around various combat zones and says nothing with so much footage. It's also a horrible portrayal of her character as she just smokes to the point of ruin, drinks to the point of alcoholism, sleeps around without care for attempting a real relationship, and selfishly risks the lives of those around her just to get her story. A Private War really feels like Marie Colvin was a shameless glory hog bound for oblivion. Rosamund Pike delivers a solid, transformative performance, but the script gives her little to work with, honestly. She feels deluded to the point of being a raving lunatic striving for death in the field. Pike is intense and thoughtful even when the film is not. Writer Arash Amel delivers a fairly dull script that doesn't let you get to know Marie Colvin. You get nothing of her life or journalistic philosophy truly. It's all gossip and private conversations that does not get to the heart of her as a person. As a biopic, A Private War fails to get you to care about this idiotic reporter, nor is it a flattering depiction. When Colvin was not needlessly injecting herself into war zones out of some self-righteous sense of somehow changing the world and defining history. There's so much coverage of war scenes that it forgets the movie still needs its heroine. It's all unpleasant, uninformative, and boring. You get no context for the wars she is covering and learn nothing of any of these conflicts. Editor Nick Fenton cuts back and forth so confusingly between Marie Colvin's home and war zones, that A Private War is always jarring. It's slowly paced. For only a 106 minutes movie, it feels like 3 hours. Robert Richardson's cinematography ranges from gorgeous with touching shots to bland and forgettable. Composer H. Scott Salinas' generic score is rather uninspired. With a more fierce score, A Private War might have engaged me a bit more. In short, A Private War is hardly worth watching.

Based on the true story of Marie Colvin a war correspondent who's brazen fearlessness put her into incredibly dangerous situations all over the world. Rosamund Pike plays Colvin and does a fantastic job of conveying the horror that she's been through during the times she is back from war. Her performance and the engaging story and tragic climax make this a really good watch.

5.0/10 — "Poor"/"Inferior"/"Amateurish"