Film Research Failure: The Movie.
Let's get this out of the way right now, I hate this movie, I am also a veteran. Before you disregard my review by saying that I'm just some "war mongering Islamophobe" with a biased opinion I think it's worth pointing out that I actually do oppose the Iraq war, if not simply for the futility and waste of lives this war has became, but I digress, I hate this movie. This movie tries soooo hard to be a gritty realistic portrayal of war and terrorism and PTSD and yet it fails to get even basic facts about the military correct. In real life EOD soldiers are part of an elite and disciplined group that deal with IED's and yet this movie portrays our protagonist as a mentally unstable nutcase. This is both disrespectful and hilariously inaccurate at the same time, if William James existed in the real Army he would be medically discharged in a heartbeat. There are also more trivial errors, such as the fact that two of our EOD specialists also seem to be elite snipers (who lay sideways out in the open when they snipe for some reason), they also don't storm buildings like SWAT or go over the wire like to rescue kidnapped kids like Captain America in real life either. These absurdities, in addition to such basic errors as soldiers carrying the wrong guns, wearing the wrong uniforms and armor, and wearing the wrong ranks makes this film hard to take seriously. I understand and appreciate that they are trying to show the struggles of the American soldier and raise awareness to PTSD, but if that was their goal then they fell flat, because this movie is to the Iraq war as Rambo 3 is to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Film Worst war movie ever
I basically agree with the above reviewer, except this movie is to being a soldier as Hot Shots is to being a pilot, just less funny. If it were not a war movie directed by a woman it would have been immediately, rather than eventually, consigned to the garbage.