Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Rosamund Pike, Jamie Dornan, Tom Hollander, Faye Marsay, Corey Johnson, Greg Wise, Alexandra Moen, Jesuthasan Antonyhasan, Raman Srinivasan, Natasha Jayetileke, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Amanda Drew, Hilton McRae, Fady Elsayed, Tristan Tait, Toma Shelmon, Nadeem Srouji, Mahmoud Al Fari, Rani Jalal, Thaer Manakhi, David Modigliani, Pano Masti, Stanley Tucci, Mo’ath Sharif, Rami Delshad, Bassam Hanna Touma, Jeremie Laheurte, Raad Rawi, Emil Hajj.
The line between truth and distortion lays not only in the hands of the reader, but in the sincerity of the journalist whose name appears before the attention-grabbing headline.
“There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth” as Dorothy Thompson once implored, and it is to that end that often, even in the best intentioned, truth is fictionalised, sanitised and despairingly edited, it is in the hands of those who seek the integrity of their words to understand that they will be seen as martyrs, addicts even to the truth and ones that will pay the ultimate price of having lived on the edge, the space between freedom of expression and the right to prepare to be attacked by those of lesser virtue.
A Private War perhaps stands between these two moments, the immensity of work, the dedication, the sometimes overpowering determination of Marie Colvin’s work and the simmering underline of damnation she faced for daring to put a different face on war, fighting against a system that is irrevocably stacked against the truth. Even in virtue though there is a shadow, a system of personal gain, the refusal to let anyone else do your job, it matters not that you have seen so much death that it begins to infect you like a disease, your own sense of guilt gnawing at you as you observe and report back to an awaiting world hungry for what?, titillation, images of the grotesque, or even just to sleep a little sounder in their own beds knowing full well that such acts of disgust could never happen in their own country; all is based on lies, one person’s search for truth can hide a multitude of sins.
Whilst A Private War goes someway to ensuring the legacy of Marie Colvin, its often-harsh sterility leaves the audience feeling a measure of disconnection, the way the film turns leaves no room for anything else apart from admiration for Ms. Colvin, and her photographer Paul Conroy, there is no chance for the watcher to suggest that her actions, at times, were more damaging to those around her, fearless yes, brave, outstanding, all is true, but reckless with other’s feelings as well, for those that cared about her, that saw her as more than just a journalist, her own private war inflicted the greatest casualty, her life.
A film that is unafraid to ask the question but doesn’t wait for the response, arguably a piece that might have worked with greater depth to her own life engrained into the story, away from the bullets and more on what the outcome of war does to the human psyche.
Ian D. Hall