Mr. Movie: Intense action and amazing acting can’t save ‘The Outpost’

On October 3, 2009, 400 Taliban swarmed in on Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan and took on 53 U.S. soldiers. It was a deadly confrontation that left eight men dead and dozens of other soldiers wounded.

“The Outpost” is their story and what led up to the attack.

Here’s what’s sad about what was the largest number of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan in 2009. There is no reason on Earth for those soldiers to have been there in the first place. In the investigation after the fact, the army admitted that having an outpost a few miles from the Pakistan border, at the bottom of a ravine, and surrounded by mountains made no sense.

What the military won’t do — probably because politicians won’t let it — is admit that when fired upon by the enemy, soldiers ought to be able to instantly fire back instead of having to radio to a command center in another part of the country and prove they are under attack.

That subject, and the incompetence of military leadership in this instance is brought up a couple of times in the movie.

“The Outpost” stars Clint’s kid, Scott Eastwood (“Pacific Rim: Uprising,”), “Pirates of the Caribbean’s” Orlando Bloom,“Get Out’s” Caleb Landry Jones, Mel’s son, Milo Gibson and a bunch of lesser known actors.

Eastwood looks scarily like his father at that age and has a similar acting style. He says little but has charisma in spades. It is that charisma that helps him outshine any actor in any of his scenes. He’s also very believable as Medal of Honor recipient Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha whose actions during the battle saved the day.

Also very good is Bloom who has been working overtime to distance himself from four Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit flicks.

As good as they and their cast mates are, no one tops the acting of Jones who plays Staff Sgt. Ty Carter.

The extraordinary bravery of Carter as portrayed by Jones is the highlight of director Rod Lurie’s movie. It is found in the middle of the attack action sequences. Jones’ performance is intense times 10 and is just nail-biting good.

So are Lurie’s action sequences. If you like this kind of movie, the battle scenes are as good as battle scenes get. It’s a pretty intense half-hour highlighted by Jones’ amazing acting.

Yes, “The Outpost” is a story that needs telling. However, in their haste to fit too much into a film that runs a couple minutes over two hours, Lurie (“The Contender,” “The Last Castle”) and his writers Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy (“Patriots Day,” “The Fighter”) never quite get you totally involved with the characters. What they miss is the deep character development that gets you to know and care about these men and their fate.

Instead, what you get between the Taliban hurling a bomb or two, plenty of flying bullets, or tedious scenes of negotiations with Afghan tribal leaders, is dialogue that has actors ripping off F-bombs galore but little, other, meaningful dialogue.

Adding to the boredom is what seems like forever to get to the real reason for the movie. That’s the actual attack and the valiant effort of these men to hold out against impossible odds until the proverbial cavalry arrives 12-hours later.

As a result the actors are forced to make sense of a script that is based on CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper’s book. The story could have been better told and goes to show that sometimes what make sense in the narrative of a book gets lost when real events are turned into screenplays and then into movies.

▪ Rated R for language, mature themes and violence. It can be purchased or rented from a number of streaming sources.

▪ Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 9:18 AM with the headline "Mr. Movie: Intense action and amazing acting can’t save ‘The Outpost’."