The Hornet's Nest (2014)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Blistering performances.

The Hornets Nest This was the best war documentary I have ever seen. It made you feel as if I was actually in the battles.Mike B is a true hero for letting the world see what war is really like.Risking his life and his sons takes real courage. My sons watched this film on DVD and they are now much more appreciative of all they have and what our Military goes through.I watched other war docs after but they lacked some of the intensity found in this film. There is a lot of swearing but that is war. Get the DVD as it will be a movie you want to pass on to everyone.

Compared to Restrepo and Korengal, this film falls well short of my expectations. I had such high hopes for this film and was excited to see it. But by the end, I was more disgusted than anything else. I watched an interview with the journalists and they said their ultimate goal was to ensure that from now on, when a civilian shakes a veteran's hand and thanks them for their service, they will know exactly what they're thanking them for. Well, Restrepo and Korengal did a much better job of that than this film did.As a journalist myself, it feels too much like the journalist's got in the way of this film and made it as much, if not more, about them and the rekindling of their relationship (father and son), than they did about the soldiers and America's longest war. In that same interview I mentioned earlier, the father and son journalist team said the film was not a documentary but instead a narrative, indicating that documentaries use too much archive footage etc., which is a broad over-generalization in my opinion. Just because a film is labeled a documentary does not mean it isn't 100% original footage.Restrepo and Korengal, both documentaries, use no archive footage at all, nor do they feature the filmmakers on camera even once during either film. Those other two films focus on the soldiers, their relationships with each other and the war and that's it. And that's where I feel this film falls short. It was a large distraction throughout the film when it kept cutting back to the journalists so they could talk about themselves or in some instances one journalist just filmed the other.With that being said, the film did win a few journalistic awards for its efforts.

These men and women did it, and they're still doing it today. That is, put their lives on the line so that others may live in freedom; even those that disagree with them.It has been said that the more things change, the more they remain the same. During the American revolution there were those that were opposed to fighting for freedom and independence from England. Before and during the Civil War that same "no war is good - don't fight" attitude was espoused by many people who would have refused freedom to men and women living in chains in the south. Have we learned from our mistakes of the past? No; it's not any different now. That same attitude is given voice by some people today. Seemingly, they never stop to think that the freedom to openly share their opinion (without fear of being dragged from their home and shot in the street by death squads) was bought and paid for by the same men and women that they are disrespecting today.I can't imagine what it must be like for the family members of the men and women who died in Afghanistan to come here and read some of the totally insensitive comments that others have posted. God has already had mercy on those that gave their lives; they're safely home with Him. He will need to give even more mercy to those that have no respect for the priceless gift they have received. Greater love has no man, or woman, than to lay down their life for their friends. Yes, the word is friends. The bottom line is that there is no we and they; there is only us. It's time we started getting it right.I wish every theater, school, church and meeting place in America would show this film. It deserves to been seen. This is war up close, in your face and personal. These are real men and women, real lives and the real reasons why they are there - honestly and sensitively portrayed. I consider it to be nothing short of a masterpiece.Be aware that my next comment may be a spoiler, but I would like to share something about a part in the film when the soldiers are talking to a group of children. The children are telling them where the enemy has been, and perhaps where they stashed some weapons. While watching this I was aware that the wisdom of children often exceeds that of we so-called adults. These children KNEW who the enemy was, and it was not the Americans. The children were not afraid of the Americans, they were afraid of the Taliban - and they were doing what they could to help the soldiers. For me, that was a moment of absolute clarity. Is our being there serving a purpose? Just ask those children.

Before starting, the movie was more-so a documentary on the journalist than it was the soldiers. It seemed the soldiers were sidelined the whole time and more of a side story for the journalists. Unlike Restrepo, the movie was pitched from the journalist's (Mike and Carlos Boetcher) point of view and mainly from Mike's point of view as the father. It isn't until the last 15 minutes of the movie that they seem to care at all about the soldiers, finally having interviews with them on their combat actions and their opinions, which even then seemed more like a 30 second piece than the reason for the movie.The first major thing watching the movie to bug me, however, was that they felt the need to add a vast amount of sound effects. From added gun noises, to yelling, to bullet sounds, they would frequently place these added effects over the combat footage as if that combat (real combat) wasn't exciting enough. Being an Afghan War Veteran myself, I felt this was kind of a jab, to say that the soldier's actual stories and actual combat was not worthy of Hollywood. After also watching movies such as Restrepo, I feel this was completely unnecessary.Those things aside, the movie wasn't awful. I do feel it should have been more about the actual soldiers and the war rather than Mike. I found it rather ironic as well that with him taking so much of the movie to direct to himself and his son, and take away from the soldiers, that he later goes on to say that he was trying to tell their stories.Overall, for a civilian the movie will hopefully paint a slightly better picture on the war, and it was still done quite well. I just have my feelings on the side due to my past experiences.