Magnus McFaulds
Lantern Staff
Triple Frontier is a film to appeal to those who like action and war. One thing to note is this is not the average war film; it is no 13 Hours Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, with high octane action and explosions. It is more like Zero Dark Thirty with a build up of story and then a drop into intensity before a settled ending. The film released Wednesday, March 6, exclusively to Netflix.
The film shows five old friends, all of which who served in special forces. Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia (Oscar Issac), William ‘Ironhead’ Miller (Charlie Hunnam), Tom ‘Redfly’ Davis (Ben Affleck), Ben Miller (Garret Hedlund) and Francisco ‘Catfish’ Morales (Perdo Pacal). Each have since retired from the military and gone to do their own thing; however, their civilian life isn’t what is meant for them.
Starting the film is a scene of DEA agents in Brazil taking down a drug house deep in the favelas, the slums in the hills of Rio De Janeiro. Garcia is within the ranks of these agents. This scene takes the viewer into what the film is going to entail. Back in America, Garcia tracks down four of his old friends to help him take down one of the biggest drug lords in Brazil, Gabriel Martin Lorea (Reynaldo Gallegos). After a quick sequence of some easy convincing, the five men head to Brazil where they scope out Lorea’s compound and plan their attack. Once the time comes to make their attack, they execute near flawlessly short of Davis’ desire to take as much money from the house of which its walls are filled with millions, possibly billions of dollars.
Triple Frontier takes its time to go through each plot detail and manages to do it just right that if the viewer pays attention, it leads them through nicely. Each scene and idea put upon the viewer is done with the right artistic vision to keep them interested, to build a story with tension, pain, anger and relief.
For many films that fit in to the war genre they lack in accuracy or logic – even though this film does seem far-fetched and makes taking down a king pin of a cartel look easy – but thanks to the actors training with ex-Navy Seals their actions feel real. From corner checks, clear communication, room clearing and a ROE (rules of engagement) that is pinpoint accurate, they all make being special forces operations easy.
Overall, I would say the film comes in high for what I expected. Throughout the two-hour run time they cover all their bases and push a well written story out through beautiful cinematic cues. There is not a lot to say about this film except it ticks all my boxes and that they didn’t have to do Affleck’s character wrong the way they did. I’ll leave it with that anticipation and give Triple Frontier a hearty 8.7/10.
