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THE WALL (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

The wall (2017) movie

Genre | Suspense Thriller

Classification | MA 15+

Running time | 90 minutes

Released | 10 August 2017

cast

Aaron Taylor-Johnson ... Isaac
John Cena ... Matthews
Laith Nakli ... Juba (voice)

director

Doug Liman

writer

Dwain Worrell ... (written by)

cinematographer

Roman Vasyanov

music

film editor

Julia Bloch

box office result

Worldwide $4,476,705

Australia $42,048

North America $1,803,064

the best dialogue

Juba: You Americans. You think you know it all. You think it's simple. That I am your enemy. But we are not so different, you and I.
Isaac: Yeah, 'cept I ain't a fuckin' terrorist.
Juba: And you think I am? You are the one who has come to another man's country. Camouflaged yourself in his land, in his soil. From where I'm sitting, *you* look very much like the terrorist.

Isaac: From a place you will not see comes a sound you will not hear. Just a flash of fucking light. Boom.

Juba: Shakespeare? Is that the only poet you know? I studied English.
Isaac: Boy, you, uh... you minor in sniping or somethin'?

THE WALL (2017) MOVIE IMAGES

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THE WALL (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

U.S. soldiers Allan "Ize" Isaac and Shane Matthews answer a distress call in the desert of postwar Iraq. Suddenly, gunshots erupt, leaving Shane badly injured and Allan with a bullet in his leg. Forced to take cover behind a crumbling stone wall, Isaac now finds himself in a fight for survival against an unseen sniper who has all of the advantages.

THE WALL (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 3 August 2017
Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐½

THE WALL is a testament to the film making skills of Doug Liman, the Director who has previously brought audiences THE BOURNE IDENTITY, MR & MRS SMITH and EDGE OF TOMORROW. Over the course of 90 minutes, Liman sustains the intensity of a single sniper who has two American Marines pinned down at an oil pipe construction site somewhere in Iraq. The Wall is set in the period after George W. Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on 1 May 2003. What followed was a disaster for the United States, as it become mired in yet another long-term war against an almost invisible enemy who had a far greater understanding of the environment and its people. It sounds all too familiar, but Dwain Worrell’s screenplay, which came to prominence among Hollywood producers back in 2014, merely sketches this backstory; avoiding the need to politicise, but more than happy to contextualize.

THE WALL is an incredibly simple set-up. Taylor-Johnson and Cena are two Marines, Isaac and Matthews, who have been dispatched to the aforementioned oil pipe construction site in an attempt to ascertain who was responsible for the execution of the Iraqi work team and their American private security escort. Isaac and Matthews have been on site, camouflaged atop a nearby hill waiting to see if anyone returns to survey the death that’s been inflicted. Isaac, referred to as “Eyes” by his more senior colleague, uses his high-powered field binoculars and is genuinely concerned from the time the viewer meets him that something is not right about the manner in which the dead bodies are positioned. He shares his concern with Matthews, but he’s having none of it. After over eighteen hours perched atop a nearby hill, the Sergeant decides to make a closer investigation of the scene. It’s at this point in THE WALL, the viewer must make a “leap of faith” and accept that an experienced Marine would break cover and go into an unsecured area with little cover and limited opportunity to call in support. If that’s a surmountable hurdle, then the next hour is a better-than-average film that moves effectively between physical action and psychological thriller.

While the inclusion of John Cena may have Wrestling fans excited for the prospect of their man armed with an automatic weapon and kitted out in Marine gear, THE WALL relies almost entirely upon Aaron Taylor-Johnson to sell its premise. Up until Isaac and Matthews are pinned down by an enemy sniper, the story, the characters and their dialogue are very much “take it or leave it”. There’s nothing that really sets the film apart from countless other War stories. It’s when Isaac is forced to take shelter behind the titular WALL, the film moves in an unexpected direction. The narrative twist makes for compelling viewer as Doug Liman and his Cinematographer Roman Vasyanov take a simple setting and create a complex visual tale of man who is forced to come to grips with his own place in the world as much avoiding the bullet from a deadly sniper who has more than enough opportunities to kill him, but, for his own reasons, is determined to find out what drives his prey to want to leave his own world behind and risk his life for somebody else’s cause.

Before his 2016 Golden Globe win in Nocturnal Animals for Best Supporting Actor, it would have been easy to categorize Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a young actor who was a solid performer but would never move into the space occupied by the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal. Nocturnal Animals showed he had more to give and THE WALL provides him with yet another opportunity to show he is emerging as a genuine acting talent who has the ability to carry a whole movie on his shoulders. It’s a pretty fair effort to spend over an hour talking into a radio microphone to a disembodied voice on the other end who is never seen in any way except through their rifle scope. It’s also a testimony to Doug Liman’s skill, along with his Film Editor Julia Bloch, that THE WALL manages to sustain itself in the manner it does. There will certainly be conjecture about the film’s ending, but, in this case, it’s the journey, not so much the destination, that makes this film worth watching.