The Outpost - Survival is Everything

Near the town of Kamdesh in the northern Afghan province of Nuristan, the U.S. military's Camp Keating was established in 2006. The Taliban have repeatedly used the three mountains surrounding the camp for sporadic attacks. And after efforts to permanently pacify the remote region and involve the local population in civilian reconstruction projects also failed to really bear fruit, the camp is to be abandoned. On October 3, 2009, a few days before the official abandonment of Camp Keating, a momentous attack occurs: only 54 U.S. soldiers face off with a hundred heavily armed Taliban fighters. It quickly becomes clear that this battle can not be won and that for the soldiers it is only about one thing: survival!

"The Outpost - Survival is everything" is a war film based on true events, which can score with a gripping atmosphere and the especially in the last 40 minutes steadily rising tension level. The screenplay was inspired by the 2012 non-fiction book "The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor" by CNN anchor and journalist Jake Tapper, who also served as producer. The locations in Bulgaria, which double Afghanistan here, were very well chosen and contribute significantly to the film's unique selling point, despite the very conventional staging.

Director Rod Lurie takes a lot of time to trace the everyday life of the soldiers in the camp. This is somewhere between the constant fear of being attacked and the frustration of not getting anywhere with the actual mission. This has some plodding moments, but in the end leads to events hitting the viewer full force in the final third. Here one feels then reminded of classics like "Black Hawk Down", behind which this production really doesn't have to hide.

Surely there are also quite a few clichés here, with which so many representatives of the (anti-)war film have to struggle. Nevertheless, "The Outpost - Survival is Everything", which has become a big VOD hit in the US, is a really exciting and successful representative of its genre. The actors don't really leave a lasting impression, but the very well executed fight sequences do. No masterpiece, but in the end definitely: worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp