Among all the units and divisions in the Army, none are as revered and glamorized as the elite special forces. Often mythologized and likened to caped superheroes, they are the grand cru of the military, a depiction that occasionally glosses over the stark reality of their heightened danger and mortality.
Land of Bad, written and co-directed by William Eubank, endeavors to capture the harrowing conditions these soldiers encounter in war zones. It’s a stripped-down military movie that echoes a bygone era, a time when such films confronted controversial topics head-on, presenting real stories about real soldiers and the daunting circumstances they confront.
Liam Hemsworth plays Sgt. Kinney, an Air Force JTAC, or joint terminal attack controller. Tasked with guiding drones from the battlefield and orchestrating airstrikes, Kinney finds himself unexpectedly assigned to the Tier One Delta Force unit. Its mission: to extract a CIA asset from a terrorist compound in the tumultuous southern Philippines. Kinney is visibly out of his element but eager to prove himself.
“Are those the new 5.11 tactical gloves?” He asks one of his teammates on route to the drop zone, like a starstruck groupie. They share an awkward but organic chemistry, the sort you’d expect to see with a college football player suddenly called up to the pro league. Among the film’s highlights is Hemsworth’s journey from the wide-eyed novice and air support addendum to a confident leader who rises to the occasion as the mission goes awry.
Meanwhile, stationed miles away in a Nevada Air Force base is Kinney’s proverbial eye in the sky: the grizzled and curmudgeonly Capt. Reaper, played by Russell Crowe. In their later years, erstwhile action stars often cling to their halcyon days, much like Gloria Swanson in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, deluding themselves into believing they’re still the invincible heroes of their youth — leading to such embarrassing flops as Expendables 4.
Crowe, refreshingly, steers clear of such pitfalls, bringing a grounded and authentic performance to his role in Land of Bad. A testament to Crowe’s remarkable acting prowess, he compellingly anchors a war thriller predominantly from his drone operator’s chair.
Though the film strays clear from any leftist inclinations to admonish America’s military, it isn’t a one-dimensional love letter to the government either. Reaper’s Air Force Communications team colleagues are portrayed as a group of incompetent and indifferent imbeciles. In one scene in the Nevada base, an Air Force officer disables the ringer on the emergency to tune out “distractions” as the rest gather around the common room TV, fixated on college basketball. Tax dollars well spent.
As the film’s title portends, war zones are fertile ground for situations to sour. When a group of Islamic terrorists they were surveying start beheading women and children, Kinney and his unit decide to intervene, blowing their cover. Reminiscent of Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor, the elite squad finds itself pinned and outnumbered against reams of belligerent enemies.
Though it lacks the same level of nail-biting tension and realism as Mark Wahlberg’s depiction of Operation Red Wings, Land of Bad similarly captures the myriad challenges and the razor-thin margins for error faced by special forces during deployment. And despite the reverence that comes with the rank, Delta Force members aren’t bulletproof comic book characters, but mortal men, grappling with the unpredictability and moral complexities of modern warfare.
Over the years, post-9/11 war thrillers have often been categorized into two distinct camps. On one side are the patriotic films, sometimes verging on jingoism, that celebrate American military might and portray it as a force for good. On the other, there are narratives that critically examine America and often cast it as a pivotal player in the genesis of conflicts.
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Audience preferences, as indicated by box office numbers, generally lean toward the former. Most critics, conversely, view themselves as holier-than-thou and are reluctant to write rave reviews about such films. On Rotten Tomatoes, Land of Bad currently has a 94% audience score and only 62% with top critics.
In many ways, Land of Bad stands as the antithesis of Oscar bait. With its raw and unvarnished portrayal of warfare, the film steers clear of the polished narratives often favored by award shows. It’s precisely this unfiltered realism we need more of in Hollywood.
Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a computer engineer in Toronto pursuing his MBA.