Tell it to the Marines.
Directed by Dito Montiel, with a script from Adam G. Simon and Montiel, Man Down offers the harrowing tale of one U.S. Marine and his experiences both at home and abroad. When it is at its best, Man Down is a powerful film, but it is a movie so caught up in the trappings of storytelling and a big reveal, that all too often it trips over its own feet.
Shia LaBeouf plays lead character U.S. Marine Gabriel Drummer who, along with his best friend, Devin Roberts (Jai Courtney), is seen early in the film walking through the rubble of an abandoned city. It is a post-apocalyptic cityscape, made eerie for its silence as much as for the devastation. Is it the U.S.? Is it somewhere overseas? What has caused this incredible level of devastation?
Quickly enough, however, Man Down reveals that it is not exclusively interested in this moment in time. It also offers up another time period where Drummer is being interviewed by an officer, Counselor Peyton (Gary Oldman), about an "incident." A third portion of the story tells the tale of Drummer and Roberts during their Marine Corps training at Camp Lejeune. This last also features Drummer's life with his wife, Natalie (Kate Mara), and their son, Johnathan (Charlie Shotwell).
The movie constantly moves back and forth between these three different moments in time, ever so slowly explaining how they all fit together. In the Camp Lejeune portion we learn of the friendship Roberts and Drummer have had their whole life. With Counselor Peyton we see a weakened Drummer, one who doesn't want to talk about his family back home nor whatever mysterious event took place. In the post-apocalyptic portion, we learn that Drummer and Roberts, both far more haggard than we have previously seen them, are searching for John, who has been abducted.
While Man Down is a relatively short film, clocking in at 90 minutes, it still feels too long. The Camp Lejeune scenes are similar to what many films have already depicted (training is hard, a bond forms amongst those who go through the training, it can be tough on families, etc.). The story that Drummer eventually tells Peyton about the "incident" is indeed difficult to watch (and well filmed), but in the end amounts to little more than a standard sort of "war is hell" philosophy. It is the post-apocalyptic portion, with the presence of one man, Charles (Clifton Collins Jr.), who might have information about John, that is the most interesting. It is here, with the post-apocalyptic world, that the audience has the most unanswered questions, chiefly: how did the world end up this way?
However, the story, and the answer to that particular question, comes out so slowly, in dribs and drabs that take forever to build into something larger, that by the time Man Down finally offers up the big reveal about how this horrendous world came to be, the audience is two steps ahead. This doesn't make the climax of the film easy to watch—it is tear-inducing stuff—but it is lessened as by that point audience members will simply want the filmmakers to get on with the inevitable horrors. Beyond that, the climax, whatever level of emotions it stirs, goes on too long as well, diminishing its own impact.
Even so, what is most impressive about Man Down is the fact that the story it tells is powerful. Despite the audience knowing what is going to happen in advance of it occurring, and how it is all going to end, the film still manages to elicit a response.
What is least impressive about the movie is that so much of it doesn't tell a story that hasn't been told before. Two of the three time periods are necessary in order for the third period of the film to exist, but if Man Down simply moved in temporal fashion, those first two would take up far less time than they are allotted when told with back-and-forth time jumps.
Everything in the movie is from Drummer's point of view and LaBeouf is good in the role, one which requires him to be a doting father; a cocky Marine; a loving husband; and a weary, scared, battle-scarred veteran. Drummer is certainly the most well-rounded of the characters, with every other one becoming increasingly less fully-realized until one gets down to Oldman's Peyton. The veteran actor definitely brings humanity to the part of Peyton, but doesn't have very much to do other than look sympathetic and try to get at the truth.
The Verdict
Man Down offers an interesting take on how traumatic events, war or otherwise, can affect how one is able to carry on with their life. What it is far less good at is convincing the audience that the journey is worth it. The shuffling between the separate time periods seems to occur not because it is essential to tell the story in that fashion, but because without telling the story in that fashion it would be a hollow tale that would fill far less time. One will leave the movie thinking about it and what Man Down means, but wondering why it couldn't have been better.
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