A PRIVATE WAR (2018)

Written by Arash Amel



Directed by Matthew Heineman



Where & When: The Landmark, West Los Angeles, CA.  November 7, 2018  7:20 PM



"A Private War" examines the riveting life of Marie Colvin, an American-born war correspondent, who put herself continuously in danger by going directly in to the conflict to get the story of the innocent people (mostly women and children) who are truly affected and paid the price of war. The Oscar-nominated British actress, Rosamund Pike delivers a blistering performance as Colvin, completely transforming in to the tenacious yet vulnerable reporter. This engaging drama reveals that Colvin's important work and heroic acts also came at a high price as she ultimately suffered greatly mind, body and spirit.

Colvin was working for the British newspaper, The Sunday Times under the foreign editor, Sean Ryan (Tom Hollander) in 2001. She was covering the Sri Lankan Civil War to report on the humanitarian disaster that was happening there due to the government blockade of food and medical supplies. Colvin and her guides are fired upon by grenades despite identifying herself as a journalist. A nearby blast would cost Colvin to lose vision in her left eye but that didn't stop her from finishing her story for the paper. Although initially reluctant, Colvin begins to wear an eye patch which would also become her badge of honor.

While usually coming across somber and gruff, Colvin could at times be quite charming and seductive which made her very appealing to men. She was involved in a turbulent, short-lived marriage to professor David Irens (Greg Wise) and later hooking up with Tony Shaw (Stanley Tucci), a wealthy businessman. And while Colvin enjoyed these romantic trysts (with others in between), she was well aware that they were not enough to win over her wanderlust.

Yet it is no surprise that her demanding vocation would lead to further complications in her personal life. Colvin, who used alcohol to self-medicate, eventually breaks down from the trauma of her harrowing experiences, leading to hospitalization for PTSD.

Colvin meets Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan), a British freelance photographer, and they begin to work together, traveling to Afghanistan, Libya and finally, Syria where they went to investigate the civil uprising in Homs in 2012. These attacks were motivated by the crackdown of the government on demonstrators, resulting in hundreds of casualties and thousands of wounded. Determined to make sure the world was aware of all of this adversity, Colvin insisted on going in to the heart of the battle to cover the story.

The director Matthew Heineman has had plenty of experience with fearless investigative reporting through documentary film making. He was behind the multi-award-winning films, "City of Ghosts" which covered RBSS, a Syrian activist group who must live undercover as their country is taken over by ISIS and "Cartel Land" that examined the Mexican drug war and the vigilante groups fighting against the cartels.

With his first narrative feature, Heineman chose a real-life subject that was a kindred spirit and someone he clearly admired. "A Private War", based on a fascinating 2012 Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner with an effective script by Arash Amel, delivers a compelling drama of the personal conflicts Colvin faced from her desire to live a simple life in a loving relationship to an unrelenting drive to place herself in the frontlines in order to be a champion for the voiceless. Colvin was not exactly selfless yet her needs, health and safety usually took a backseat to fulfilling her obligation to complete her journalistic mission. The director, with the assistance of three-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer, Robert Richardson, uses the unobtrusive style he has applied to film his documentaries to toggle between a sense of urgency in the scenes involving the war-torn countries and intimacy during Colvin's life off the battlefield.

"A Private War" only covers the final few years of the reporter's life and I hope that Mr. Heineman will at some point have an opportunity to do an actual documentary on Colvin which would reveal her entire incredible life and career.

Journalism is under attack today by government officials who have successfully managed to convince some people that reporters are dishonest and creating "fake" news stories, particularly when it happens to involve them. Marie Colvin lost her life trying to report on the brutal reality of what actually happens after bombs are dropped on civilians. This impeccably made drama, "A Private War" not only honors the memory of Colvin but to all of the dedicated journalists who have risked their own lives so that the stories of the many people suffering and forgotten are actually told.