Combat Obscura

Name: Combat Obscura
Genre: Documentary
Released: March 15, 2019
Duration: 70 min
Rating: 56

2019

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 7 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

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Combat Obscura

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Movie Details & Credits

Oscilloscope | Release Date: March 15, 2019 | Not Rated

Summary: Just out of high school, at the age of 18, Miles Lagoze enlisted in the Marine Corps. He was deployed to Afghanistan where he served as Combat Camera — his unit's official videographer, tasked with shooting and editing footage for the Corps’ recruiting purposes and historical initiatives. But upon discharging, Lagoze took all the footage heJust out of high school, at the age of 18, Miles Lagoze enlisted in the Marine Corps. He was deployed to Afghanistan where he served as Combat Camera — his unit's official videographer, tasked with shooting and editing footage for the Corps’ recruiting purposes and historical initiatives. But upon discharging, Lagoze took all the footage he and his fellow cameramen shot, and he assembled quite simply the very documentary the Corps does not want you to see. Combat Obscura is a groundbreaking look at the daily life of Marines in a war zone as told by the soldiers themselves. More than a mere compilation of violence, the edit ingeniously repurposes the original footage to reveal the intensity and paradoxes of an ambiguous war from an unvarnished perspective.… Expand

Director: Miles Lagoze

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 70 min

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Critic Reviews

The Playlist Gary Garrison

Mar 18, 2019

While Lagoze’s film may not offer any genuinely new insights, it is an unsettling opportunity to bear witness to the numbing chaos of war. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Feb 20, 2019

Military myth-making dies hard in Combat Obscura, perhaps the most unfiltered account of American boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Read full review

Ben Kenigsberg

Mar 14, 2019

Leaning in to the style its patchwork of source material requires, Combat Obscura, is an eye-opening dispatch from a conflict mired in confusion. Read full review

Lawrence Garcia

Mar 13, 2019

Unsurprisingly, the results aren’t pretty. Read full review

Christopher Gray

Mar 11, 2019

The portrait it paints of its Marines is appropriately discordant, redolent of the twitchy frustration caused by a long stint in a sparse landscape with a hazy mission. Read full review

John DeFore

Mar 14, 2019

More polished docs like "Restrepo" have covered similar ground in less scattered fashion, usually giving more coherent pictures of military operations while they're at it. Read full review

Gary Goldstein

Mar 14, 2019

Due to the movie’s deliberate lack of narrative arc, thematic stance and clear characterizations (the soldiers feel interchangeable and Logaze’s interview style is weak), we’re never always sure what we’re watching — or why. Read full review

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User Reviews

SeussMyTub

Mar 22, 2019

A searing documentary based on footage filmed by US Marines in Afghanistan. It's along the same lines as Restrepo, and in many ways its more honest. You have young men being placed in impossible situations, trying to win a war that shouldn't even be fought. They try their best, but when oneA searing documentary based on footage filmed by US Marines in Afghanistan. It's along the same lines as Restrepo, and in many ways its more honest. You have young men being placed in impossible situations, trying to win a war that shouldn't even be fought. They try their best, but when one doesn't speak the language or cant tell who the enemy is, then its a surefire recipe for disaster. Anyone who is interested in the war on terror ought to see it.… Expand

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CWesc

Apr 12, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The critics that reviewed this poorly, clearly didn't understand the intent of the movie. Its supposed to give you the chaotic and tense fights in a blur between being on patrol, spending time with the men around you, and dealing with the effects of patrolling. There's not supposed to be a cut and seamless transition between the action and the downtime, because of the situation they're in and face daily. For example when the guy was up on the roof of the hut calling out where they're taking fire from and someone tells him not to get shot, there's an instant feeling of foreboding and in an instant the relative safety they had with their man up on the roof letting them know how close they are is cut down. From having knowledge of what you're about to face to having a man down with a round that's gone through kevlar and into the brain, immediately there's a sense of hopelessness. The movie was never meant to be portray the Corp in a perfect or propaganda-esque depiction. It shows the true grit of being in the Infantry, and how quick your are threatened, there's a bend and a break moment throughout the deployment, once the men have reached their breaking point they think irrationally and only care to preserve themselves and the men around them. For example during a firefight with the taliban hiding in the ridge inside the caves Lagoze turns the camera on a soldier and the immediate response is "We should just blow everything up". Soon following that Lagoze is shot at by a taliban sniper narrowly missing him, and when he moves to get better cover a 30mm hits about 5 meters in front of him, injuring a soldier and Lagoze himself. There's moments when the scene by scene style captures the tension slowly building and building, another example of how it shows exactly the emotions the marines are feeling is the entirety of when they're in the village with 3 or 4 POIs and they spend the entire day there waiting for them to bring them in. Immediately in the next scene the marines are back at Alcatraz debriefing and being told by the CO or SL that they have to cut all of the men free. In the end the movie sums up everything infantry feel being stuck around an outpost all day for contact and to be cut down at every turn.… Expand

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