Review of The Siege of Jadotville (2016) by Spangle — 11 Oct 2016

Despite being largely quite cliche, The Siege of Jadotville is a thoroughly riveting war thriller that should provide action junkies and thrill seekers more than enough to chew on. However, beyond this, The Siege of Jadotville suffers from poor character development, iffy writing, and moments of sub-par acting. That said, there are many positives to the film, namely in the technical department with good cinematography, good costume design, production design, and just thoroughly thrilling battle sequences. It is what happens when the guns are placed down where the film suffers.

In The Siege of Jadotville, Jamie Dornan stars as Commandant Pat Quinlan. The leader of a company of Irish soldiers sent as UN Peacekeepers to the Congo in 1961, film depicts his company's brave stance in Jadotville, despite being under constant siege from Congolese soldiers and mercenaries. The film most certainly does its real life heroes justice, showcasing both their bravery and courage in the face of insurmountable odds. Throughout the film, the battle sequences are covered with brilliantly executed explosions that, somehow, manage to look incredibly beautiful. Against the drab brown and green uniforms and buildings, the repeated bursts of orange and yellow flames bring a certain perverse beauty to the film. Having seen many a war film, there are not many better looking explosions during a battle out there than can be found in The Siege of Jadotville.

The beauty of these explosions are most certainly encapsulated in the cinematography from Nikolaus Summerer. Though at times pretty typical for war film fare, there are a few moments of brilliance that really just soak in the odd beauty of war, as well as the sheer beauty of Jadotville and the Congolese landscape. In particular, there is a shot of Dornan walking to speak to the mercenary leader and there is a window briefly behind him that has the window pouring through it. This shot in particular shows a keen eye on the part of Summerer for what is truly beautiful, in spite of the carnage and destruction surrounding this beauty. In many ways, it is a nice touch of juxtaposition to put so much brutality against such natural beauty.

The film's battle sequences are not its only strengths, as Jamie Dornan does turn in a very good performance as Pat Quinlan. Though, this is also where the weaknesses of the film come in, namely in the story and characterization. The real life story is riveting. The film does encapsulate some of this, but fails in regards to actually do anything unique with the story. A tale of men being left to die at insurmountable odds has been told again and again. While obviously a real story, it does feel as if the film was limited by its real life basis as it left it nowhere to go to find any originality in the narrative. Instead, it doubles down on this with cliche interactions between Quinlan and his commanding officers.

Additionally, the film fails to develop anybody, even Quinlan. Before writing this review, I only knew that Jamie Dornan played the lead. Still had no idea as to his name. This is a problem. I caught other names along the way, but their characters were either slotted fully into supporting roles or cliched antagonist roles where their motives are unclear and no efforts are made to explain their decisions. This latter element comes into play with Conor Cruise O'Brien (Mark Strong), the head of UN operations in the Congo and an Irishman himself. His character's motivations are unclear throughout and the film cannot be bothered to explain them. That said, it is almost a reprieve as Strong did not bring his A-game to this film. There is one scene in particular that he completely bombs and it comes off as hysterical, rather than powerful.

Overall, The Siege of Jadotville is a solid thriller that tells a riveting real life story, but feels consumed by it and fails to develop any of its characters to a satisfactory level. That said, it is well shot and thoroughly entertaining, thus it is most certainly worth a watch. Even if the rest of the film may not be to your tastes, there is one kill accompanied by a hilariously out-of-place Wilhelm scream, which should really justify watching this for any skeptics out there.