The Covenant - Directed by Guy Ritchie
As the credits roll on Guy Ritchie’s latest film The Covenant, text onscreen informs viewers that more than 300 Afghan interpreters and their families have been killed by the Taliban during and after the US’s armed forces pulled out of the country. Thousands more interpreters still live in hiding. Initially, the US promised that as payment for aiding our soldiers throughout the conflict these interpreters and their families would be granted special immigration visas so that they could move to the U.S. and live safely away from Taliban forces. Though The Covenant isn’t based on a true story, using this idea as the bedrock for moving the story’s narrative along does make the film feel truthful. The full result is a film that is topical, suspenseful, and above all, moving.
When the film begins, we follow a group of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. They are led by Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) as they search out hidden Taliban munitions and explosives factories. In the film’s very first moments the group’s interpreter is killed by an IED (improvised explosive device) planted in the back of a box truck. Thus, a new interpreter is needed and soon we meet Ahmed (Dar Salim) a man with a shady past that even in a country seemingly overrun by explosions and gunfire, makes the soldiers wary of him. After a few brief missions Kinley learns that Ahmed is much more than an interpreter. He knows this country well. He knows its people and their ways. He’s an incredibly valuable man. On a mission that actually results in finding enemy firepower the group of soldiers is ambushed and all but Kinley and Ahmed are killed.
These two being the only survivors is the fuse that blasts The Covenant into greatness. John is heavily wounded from the skirmish and so Ahmed must drag him across miles and miles of mountainous Taliban-controlled territory. He lies, negotiates, and when necessary, stabs and shoots his way through a hellscape of natural obstacles, war-torn devastation and endless suspicion. All while under the ever-ticking clock that is Kinley’s rapidly deteriorating health. Much of this sequence is shown from Kinley’s point of view. Thanks to heavy blood loss and a concussion, much of this time is perceived through hazy incomprehension. The editing and use of camera angles and focus shows Ritchie at the height of his filmmaking powers. We feel like Kinley in these sequences. Much of this section of the film occurs without dialogue and the result is a dreamy (or nightmarish) ride anyone who views the film won’t soon forget.
Sent home for his injuries, Kinley resumes is civilian life in Santa Clarita California with is wife, kids, and vintage car repair shop while Ahmed is left behind in Afghanistan. Kinley suffers from PTSD and maybe even more so from a form of guilt. So much so in fact that he tries to cut through the bureaucracy to get Ahmed and his family the visas they were promised. Ritchie deploys the same dreamy, stylized grammar to shoot these sequences as he did Kinley and Ahmed’s harrowing journey through the wilderness. The result is a beautifully rendered visual representation of one man’s physical ordeal coupled with another’s emotional torment.
Gyllenhaal is a phenomenal actor giving an equal performance but man his face does most of the work during this sequence. His eyes along convey a haunted feeling few other actors could convince me of with just a look. Kinley’s desire to get Ahmed out isn’t just an act of nobility or decency. He barely remembers what happened in Afghanistan. His drive to save Ahmed is a gnawing burden that keeps Kinley up at night. “ As if it wasn’t enough for him to carry me across the mountains, now I can’t get him out of my head” John tells his wife. The gravity lent to this film by its subject matter, the lengths Ahmed went to in order to save Kinley, and Gyllenhaal’s performance throughout, all combine to give Kinley’s drive real weight.
