You gotta hand it to a country that shells out as much on defense as the next most aggressive seven countries combined and still manages to employ a healthy amount of mercenaries to boot. I’m not sure what exactly you have to hand to that country … maybe a small trophy made of shrapnel and MRE packaging. “Boys, we’re just not spending enough on our collective paranoia.” To be fair, many American mercenaries are privately hired (for the privately paranoid), which is also disturbing, but in a slightly different way. And with that, I present The Contractor, a potential consequence for those the army hath forsaken … and who have no patience to write up a CV.
US Special Forces sergeant James Harper (Chris Pine) blew up his knee in either Iraq or Afghanistan. One way or another, he picked the wrong time to select a personal health care regimen of substance abuse. In an awkward army style meet-n-greet, James is honorably discharged, but without benefits … and that ain’t gonna pay the bills. And it would appear that James has no faith in his non-military skill set; the scene where one discusses viable options (often with one’s spouse) is completely missing from this film.
Getting together with his Hell or High Water bud, Ben Foster, James gets an offer. Mike (Foster) brings James to Kiefer Sutherland for a little light black ops work in Germany. I dunno exactly how much of that would raise a light red flag with me … but it would start with Kiefer. All I know is if Kiefer shows up in your film, there’s an excellent chance your life will be on the line sooner or later. If James has any qualms, they fly out the door when he’s handed a downpayment of $50k.
Now if you’re sleeping, and your spouse wakes you up and hands you a check for $50k, wouldn’t you have several questions? And wouldn’t the part of you that reasons “weren’t we just in a massive hole of debt?” be a tad, I dunno, skeptical? Which is not to say that Brianne Harper (Gillian Jacobs) isn’t; it’s just not what this film chose to show.
Needless to say, I wasn’t wild about Act I. The early part of this film insists upon some sort of unstated law that soldiers only know how to soldier, which sounds like selling an entire group short. I wasn’t nuts about the set-up
or the premise which all pointed to mercenary work without bothering to examine any other avenue. However, once the mercenary stuff began, The Contractor became a far better film. It’s pretty clear that the people who made it wanted to talk about operations and consequences and blowback. Is it important to know why you’re employed to do what you’re doing? I think so and so does the film. Hence The Contractor pulled itself out of the wreckage with some thrills and then some chills. But not a lot. This is neither an impressive nor an important film. I hope it might strike a chord with ex-GIs, but it probably will not.
I feel overall like this is yet another lost opportunity to discuss veteran health care which continues to be a serious issue in the United States. Well, let’s be honest, health care is a HUGE issue even for non-veterans, too, but –in my mind- it all starts with taking better care of the people who are willing to die for the flag. A very on-the-fence thumbs up here. Don’t hold me to it; I will deny under oath.
A sergeant with imperfect knees
Got tossed without even a “please”
So what’s the plan, Joe?
Raise the fam, earn some dough
And then start a world war overseas?
Rated R, 103 Minutes
Director: Tarik Saleh
Writer: J. P. Davis
Genre: How to spend retirement
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Ex-GIs
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Pacifists
