I'm not one to take the time to review movies but this one really got to me. Now like all service members know, military movies are always going to stretch fiction for dramatic purposes. That being said, this movie really comes off as having little to no research done to attempt to show any accuracy in its story. The majority of the US population has a small understanding of the US military and tends to believe whatever they see on TV. The questions I have been asked because of movies like The Hurt Locker, Jarhead, etc. prove just how in the dark people are. Hollywood, understandably, wants to capitalize on the recent conflict but needs to realize what a disservice it does to service members when it shows such irresponsibility in its product. The inaccuracies are too many to list but just a handful are: vehicles and equipment crosses service branches and even generations, the unit patch of the "infantry" unit followed is a non-combat arms civil affairs unit patch(I'm Biased, but as an Infantryman that is a big slap in the face), tactics and every day basic operations are zero, rank structure is in title only, and one last thing to mention, and I'm no Special Operations guy so take it with a grain of salt but, to show a Special Forces guy growing his beard out to better interact with the local populace but then always have the cleanest of buzz cuts seemed a little off. It's my understanding that the writer is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I would be curious to see just how far this strayed from his original story line due to being pressured by Hollywood. In the end, if you have never been in the military, or at least have not deployed in support of our recent conflicts, this movie is decent enough to kill a few hours. Casting has quite a few known names and the locations actually due closely resemble Iraq. Just please don't watch this and believe this is how the military does things.
Review of Sand Castle
