War Machine

As WAR MACHINE opens, the United States is involved in a six-year maelstrom of fighting against an insurgent enemy in Afghanistan. President Obama hasn't been able to extricate the country from a war he inherited. Victory isn't yet in sight. Americans have had enough. Into this setting comes the lauded and popular military hero, General Glen McMahon (Brad Pitt). Filled with bravado and confidence, the general, along with his staff of gung-ho yes-men, undertakes the task with gusto, if not insight. What follows are clashes between McMahon's team and those who've been on the ground before them, misunderstandings between McMahon and D.C. government officials, and continuing difficulties in determining which civilians are on which side. McMahon's single-mindedness, based on nothing resembling the current predicament, makes a bad scene even worse. When a zealous Rolling Stone reporter boosts the narcissistic McMahon's ego with the prospect of a tell-all article for the magazine, it's a story destined to spin out of control. As seen here, war is hell. But some of those upon whom all the innocents of the world count are the devils who rule.