Kandahar (2023)
Kandahar, starring Gerard Butler, is a not very successful mixture of war movie and action thriller.
Scottish actor Butler has made a name for himself playing working class heroes in ‘meat & potatoes’ action movies. Like a younger version of Liam Neeson’s ‘dad movies.’
Butler has found a collaborator in Ric Roman Waugh, who previously directed him in relatively light-weight movies like Greenland and Angel Has Fallen.
In Kandahar they attempt to strike a more serious tone. The screenplay is written by Mitchell LaFortune, who used to work for the US Defense department.
The story is about CIA operative Tom Harris (Butler), who, together with his Afghan translator Mohammad (Navid Negahban), has to flee Afghanistan in a hurry after their cover is blown while engaging in a secret mission.
There are a number of decent action scenes, including a standard high-speed chase through a market, to keep us reasonably interested, while the movie makes sure both the good and bad guys (Taliban, Isis, etc.) are drawn in various shades of grey.
While on the run Tom apologizes to Mo about the way translators are usually used and left behind by their American operatives.
‘Modern wars aren’t meant to be won,’ muses Mo, before his voice trails off in the distance, while letting the viewers add something in their minds like ‘they just go on and on, because there is always someone who benefits.’
And that’s kind of the problem with Kandahar. It’s a solid action thriller, but for a movie that wants to have something to say about war and geopolitical issues, it doesn’t run deep enough.
A lot of the time Kandahar feels like an overlong episode of Homeland, starring Gerard Butler instead of Claire Danes.
To my mind, that’s not an improvement.