War machine

In the summer of 2009 , General Glen McMan ( Brad Pitt ) was sent to Afghanistan to assess the situation in the ongoing war . He is allowed to send a report to the highest level, provided that he does not require additional troops. McMan with his team claims that the war can be won and recommends sending an additional 40 thousand soldiers to capture Helmand province and stabilize the situation in the country. The US Secretary of State informs him that his report will not be considered until after the upcoming presidential election .

McMan is informed that due to problems with the counting of votes, it is necessary to hold additional elections, which further postpones the consideration of his report. McMan allows the report to “leak” to The Washington Post , after which he arranges an interview with “ 60 Minutes, ” where he claims that he managed to speak with the president only once in the past seventy days. In response, the US government says it will send an additional 30,000 to Afghanistan and that it will withdraw troops in 18 months. To get the missing 10,000 soldiers for the operation, McMann with his team goes to Paris to negotiate.

In Paris, MacMan learns that the president wants to meet with him, but in the end, due to lack of time, he only shakes his hand when boarding the plane. McMan meets Rolling Stone journalist Sean Cullen, who wants to write an article about the general in an upcoming issue of the magazine. Cullen accompanies the general and his team to Berlin to continue negotiations. He notes that they behave self-confidently and do not pay attention to the fact that there is an increasing opinion in society about the senselessness of continuing the war. At the conference, the German representative expresses skepticism about the appropriateness of the operation proposed by MacMan, believing that this will lead only to great casualties. Nevertheless, Germany and France agree to provide troops, provided that the operation is approved by the President of Afghanistan .

The operation, dubbed " Moshtarak ", begins, but faces difficulties after several civilians die during the fighting. McMan also learns that Cullen has published an article in a magazine claiming that the general and his team openly criticize the position of the US president. Already realizing that he will be dismissed, McMan returns to Washington .

• Brad Pitt - General Glen McMan, character based on General Stanley McChrystal
• John Magaro - Corey Staggart
• Emory Cohen - Willie Dunn
• Alan Cancer
• Scoot McNairy - Sean Cullen
• Arjay Cyler - Andy Moon
• Daniel Betts - Simon Ball
• Topher Grace - Matt Little
• Anthony Michael Hall - Greg Pulver
• Anthony Hayes - Pete Duckman
• Scoot McNairy - Sean Cullen
• Lakit Stanfield - Billy Cole
• Will Poulter - Ricky Ortega
• Shan Thomas
• Meg Tilly - Jeanie McMan
• Ben Kingsley - President of Afghanistan

The film received mixed ratings from film critics. On the Rotten Tomatoes website , the film is rated 49% based on 86 critique reviews with an average rating of 5.7 out of 10 ^[2] . On the Metacritic website , the film received a rating of 56 out of 100 based on 30 reviews, which corresponds to the status of “mixed or average reviews” ^[3] .