THE LOST STRAIT is a brutal Iranian war movie about the last days of the Iran-Iraq War. Shot in a cinema verite style with incredible detail and realism, the film gets almost everything right about a war movie from quickly building characters you want to survive to big stakes to savage action.

The film opens with four Iranian soldiers of the Ammar Battalion on their way home to Tehran after a long, hard stretch at the front. After eight long years, the war against Iraq is coming to a close in 1988. On the eve of signing a UN-brokered peace deal, Iraq launches a desperate attack across the Abughoraib strait, a strategically important mountain pass. If the Baathist army can get through the pass, they will gain position to push ahead to major Iranian cities and win the war. According to the film–which in turn was based on extensive fieldwork and interviews–the battle saw use of chemical weapons, the effects of which are shown.

The soldiers are given a choice to go home if they have to and otherwise report to the front to stem the tide. They arrive to find a traffic jam of vehicles and civilians fleeing the fighting. Here, we get to know the four men, as they show compassion to help wounded leaving the front and desperate civilians. A fifth character is introduced, Ali, a teenager whose father was severely wounded in the war and who wants to do his part. As one of them was charged with a family obligation to watch out for Ali, all of them do, and we see them and the war a lot through his eyes.

When they reach the front, it’s horror and chaos, a massive desert junkyard of trenches and broken equipment and raining shells. This was a large battle, but we’re given a snapshot of a day and a half of it. The action is less focused than but just as riveting as the final battle over the bridge in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. But more real–this is the horror of modern war, in this case with outnumbered, outgunned, and thirsty soldiers dug in against waves of tanks and infantry. The fighting is savage, and though the strait is saved, they all pay a heavy price.

This was a terrific war film and a real surprise find for me. Recommended if you can get your hands on it, as it’s hard to find.

THE DIG (2021, streaming on Netflix) is an enjoyable, pass-the-time film about archaeology while including enough drama to please those looking for more. It’s a satisfying film, though I would have enjoyed it more if it focused on the dig and its remarkable find.

Based on the novel by John Preston, which is in turn based on true events, the film is about the excavation of burial mounds on a rural property in England in 1939, which results in one of the most important archeological finds in British history. Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), who owns the land, hires amateur archeologist Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to excavate a large burial mound, which turns up remarkable treasures that redefine modern understanding of the Dark Ages following the Romans leaving the island. As an amateur, Brown never received credit until recently.

The find showed that the Dark Ages weren’t quite all that dark, and that culture, art, and trade survived and even flourished during these years and among the barbaric invaders of the British isles. The film plays the excavation and discovery well, and this aspect of the film kept me watching. It’s not quite explored enough, as the film gives the find’s archeological significance its due but doesn’t geek on it the way I would have loved. For that, you can Google articles about the actual excavation and treasures found at Sutton Hoo.

After the initial find, a team of professional archaeologists shows up, and that’s where things take a more dramatic bent. Thematically, it’s done well, as Pretty is dying and concerned about what of her if anything might live on, WW2 and its historical significance looms, and a young couple who shouldn’t be together realize they should live their lives on their own terms. Very artistic direction–cutaways to little details in the landscape and people looking at each other while dialogue from previous conversations take place–attempts to capture a literary feel. Even with it, the result is fairly staid, though again, it’s enjoyable, and I’m happy to see a movie made like this about archaeology and in particular this important discovery. So overall, I’d grade this film a B, though for its intended audience I think it’s an A film.

As a writer, my time is split between nonfiction and fiction. My nonfiction deals with the lighting industry, which I’ve been writing about for magazines, associations, websites, and manufacturers for 30 years. So I was very interested in watching THE CURRENT WAR (2017), a film about the war between George Westinghouse and Thomas Alva Edison about whether AC or DC power would dominate American power distribution, as I was familiar with some of the history. The film does a good job dramatizing their war and I was happy to see this bit of history covered by a major film, though overall the result feels kinda tame, like a traditional TV movie.

The film starts with Edison’s commercialization of a viable incandescent light bulb and a DC power system used to feed electricity to these bulbs from generators. Edison is excellently played by Benedict Cumberbatch, basically reprising his eccentric genius Sherlock role complete with a Watson-like sidekick. While the bulbs are amazing for the period (they last 13 hours as opposed to two, the best anybody else could do), DC power isn’t very efficient, resulting in a huge number of generators and the air crisscrossed with thick wires. Enter George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), a railroad engineer who grew rich on investing an air brake for trains. He sees AC power as the future as it’s dramatically more efficient, but he doesn’t have Edison’s light bulbs. Westinghouse wants to work together, but Edison snubs him, starting a war to see which power system will electrify America.

Edison goes so far as to try to smear AC power as dangerous, electrifying animals in front of the press and supporting the invention of the electric chair. But AC power is clearly superior. All it’s missing is a viable motor that can accept an AC power input. Enter a genius named Nikola Tesla, a Serbian immigrant who has the answer. The rest, as they say, is history.

The film has a great cast and a lot of love went into bringing the period to life. I especially appreciated the topic, as the Current War is as dramatic as they come in terms of history, and it was fought by business and intellectual giants who were rapidly transforming America with radical inventions such as electricity, the phonograph, arc lamps, and motion pictures. The film does a fantastic job of creating a sense of wonder and how at the time a few great minds could change the world with science.

The film sags, however, in its storytelling. The writers tried to balance the human and business sides of the war without giving either the right height. The directing is also fairly staid, propping up the result with Scorcese-like visual elements (he was a producer) that feel utterly out of place and actually detract from all the effort made to create historical immersion. I also think they might have done better to give Tesla far more screen time, as he is such a fascinating figure who made science truly feel like magic. This is a guy who stood on a stage at the Chicago World Fair and electrified himself (safely because the frequency was so high), powering a forerunner to the fluorescent tube that he held in his hand. The film also doesn’t mention he got ripped off.

So in the end, this is another one I liked instead of loved. Overall, it’s very enjoyable and the history is great, though the telling somewhat sags with lackluster directing.

I spotted THE OUTPOST (2020) on Netflix and thought, well, here goes another predictable war movie about lovable, earnest soldiers fighting the evil Taliban with plenty of action and American grit, and I ended up pretty surprised to discover instead one of the best films about war ever made, at least in my opinion as a civilian.

Based on the book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper, the film depicts the events surrounding the incredible Taliban assault against Combat Outpost Keating, one of a series of bases strung across the mountains near Pakistan to prevent arms and Taliban fighters from crossing into Afghanistan. It was that war’s bloodiest battle, which involved hundreds of Taliban assaulting the base with the advantage of the high ground. It’s the inspiration for a similar fight in my novel THE INFECTION.

Few war movies have the courage to tell it like it is and let soldiers be real people. GENERATION KILL did it, and so does OUTPOST. There’s very little hooah sap and “band of brothers” here. They’re just regular guys, and we see them interact with wit and the usual friendships and frictions you’d expect. They are also somewhat fatalistic, as they’re under constant harassment, the base is poorly situated surrounded by high ground, and they know a big attack is coming that they will likely not survive. But they’re professional soldiers and have a job to do, so they do it stoically.

The film gives us time to get to know the grunts as the CAV unit goes through several commanders, each with a different command style. The acting is strong and perfectly understated, led by a cast that includes Orlando Bloom, Caleb Landry Jones, and Scott Eastwood (the spitting image of his dad). Meanwhile, the unit’s relationship with the locals slowly sours, and the tension builds. When the attack finally comes, it’s absolutely savage–as exciting and powerful as the likes of BLACKHAWK DOWN–and this is where we see the hooah and band of brothers come out–naturally in the soldiers’ actions–as some fight back with incredible courage and others risk their lives for guys they serve with and sometimes don’t even like that much.

The film has been praised by veterans, including men who fought in the actual battle, for its depictions of everyday soldier life, war in general, and the battle in particular. The film made me care, had me on the edge of my seat, and respected my intelligence. I absolutely loved this one. While 2020 sucked in general, it absolutely shined for war films with the release of the likes of THE OUTPOST and GREYHOUND. I hope we get more like it.