Review of Garrison (2008) by Jonathon C — 14 Oct 2009

Haha, the bloke that rated this before me gave it half a star. =OD.

Actually very good, it was not at all what I expected it to be like. I've deliberately by-passed this film on the video hire shop shelf for months because it didn't interest me. But I was around at a friends place tonight and he had hired it out, and we watched it. It must have been fate.

This is not at all an action film as you might suppose from the cover, but is a very tightly knit, dialogue and plot driven suspense-drama that focuses on a group of senior veteran soldiers returned from Afghanistan who are now back in to the routine of barracks life. Hence the film title, Garrison. The plot revolves around the unusual behaviour of Sergeant Nathan Cross, who has gone absent without leave, and two of his concerned comrades who are delegated the task of finding him by their platoon sergeant, before the Military Police are notified he is missing. Woven in to this film is a very frank and down to earth representation of military life in the ranks, which is done nearly perfectly. There are no bells, no whistles, but a strong sense of the squad/ section level ethos in the US Army style: the "don't rat on your mates" sense of camaraderie. What this gives us is a fly on the wall presentation of soldiers closing ranks around their comrades, and the impenetrable wall of silence that conceals an incident detrimental to the reputation of the man and the unit.

So what is the film about? In short, domestic violence between a man and wife, the repercussions of an affair that is not what it appears to be, revenge, mental illness and a terrible single crime; but these aspects are very subtly packaged. It is almost entirely implied. The soldiers are oblivious to these things, and in a sense so are we, getting only small pieces of the puzzle as they do, as the story unravels. The storyline is also based on an actual event.

The acting was actually quite good, because it appeared that we were watching real people, and I'm sure that ex-servicemen might recognize the sort of characters that are represented as reasonably authentic. The level of testosterone and ego among the soldiers is not overdone, and not underdone, but is quite balanced and human. (I might just add that there is a five minute scene in a strip club that is actually relevant to the plot, which may require the averting of modest eyes- but as I said, this is a frank and fair representation of soldier life for the most part).

Compassionately and intelligently told. I appreciated it. It was done on a shoestring budget, but so what. It gets you thinking. Well done.