Here's a quote from the film
* Lee: You *are* aware there's a really huge civil war going on everywhere?
* Shop Assistant: We usually try to stay out of it. With everything that's been going on, it seems like it's for the best.
Basically the film takes the same attitude as the shop assistant. They are combat journalists trying to speak to the President. They are not embedded as one synopsis said. If they were we might actually see the civil war. If it wasn't for the Presidential broadcast, as in the trailer, and the Western Forces flag (like the US flag but only 2 stars) it could have been anywhere and any war. The trailer suggests you're going to see the civil war. The journalists are wandering around. They take pictures of burnt out cares and sometimes combat. It's not explained who's fighting who and why. They encounter the "what type of American are you?" guy and the "We're shooting at someone because they're shooting at us" guys. Neither of these are directly part of the civil war. They're not on either side. In other words it's just a film that's anti-war but done in such a slow way that I was thinking of calling this review "recommended for insomniacs". Watching the trailer you'd think there was constant battle throughout the film. I'm really tempted to say that the only combat scenes in the film are the ones in the trailer but that would be unfair. The ending battle is pretty good but I do think you'd end up with a 30 minute film if you took out all the chatting in the van. It's an anti-war film that doesn't make its point. It's more like a pro-sleep film.
* Shop Assistant: We usually try to stay out of it. With everything that's been going on, it seems like it's for the best.
Basically the film takes the same attitude as the shop assistant. They are combat journalists trying to speak to the President. They are not embedded as one synopsis said. If they were we might actually see the civil war. If it wasn't for the Presidential broadcast, as in the trailer, and the Western Forces flag (like the US flag but only 2 stars) it could have been anywhere and any war. The trailer suggests you're going to see the civil war. The journalists are wandering around. They take pictures of burnt out cares and sometimes combat. It's not explained who's fighting who and why. They encounter the "what type of American are you?" guy and the "We're shooting at someone because they're shooting at us" guys. Neither of these are directly part of the civil war. They're not on either side. In other words it's just a film that's anti-war but done in such a slow way that I was thinking of calling this review "recommended for insomniacs". Watching the trailer you'd think there was constant battle throughout the film. I'm really tempted to say that the only combat scenes in the film are the ones in the trailer but that would be unfair. The ending battle is pretty good but I do think you'd end up with a 30 minute film if you took out all the chatting in the van. It's an anti-war film that doesn't make its point. It's more like a pro-sleep film.