The Patrol, 2013.
Written and Directed by Tom Petch.
Starring Owain Arthur, Nicholas Beveney, Daniel Fraser, Alex McNally, Oliver Mott, Ben Righton and Nav Sidhu.
SYNOPSIS: When a Special Forces Operation prompts a Taliban counter attack in Helmand Province, the unit’s three-day patrol hits double figures. Faced with low ammunition, injury and rising tensions under the command of a Captain who is out of touch with his men, the exhausted, disillusioned soldiers question their role in the war.
The Patrol has to be shown to all those who have a belief that being in the army is a just full-on respawn life which exists in Call of Duty and Battlefield 4, where every day you’re a hero and you can survive numerous gunshot wounds by crouching down behind a tree long enough for your health to restore.
Personally I haven’t been in the armed forces but I’ve known numerous people (my own sister for one) that have and Tom Petch has managed to capture the downside of being caught on a negative slide within Her Majesty’s Armed Forces extremely well; there is no guns a blazing and riding into the sunset here.
It’s rare that you get such a slow yet powerful film, which has described by Total Film as “the British answer to The Hurt Locker“. I can see where they are coming from but I would actually say this is so much darker than The Hurt Locker as the troops here, on the poorly named Operation Icarus, are pushed to the limit with a three-day patrol lasting nearly two weeks; they are low on ammunition, morale and want to return home. What starts as friendly name calling banter ends with former friends screaming in faces and guns being fired at kit in the hope that the damage will force the hand of those in charge to bring them home.
Tom Petch himself served for eight years in the British Army including the Special Forces and for this film he meticulously researched all aspects of the conflict in Afghanistan from real accounts face by British Army Patrols, their equipment and tactics. The monologue running alongside the action asks the question what has the loss of over 440 British Servicemen and women (to date) in the Iraq conflict actually achieved?
This is Tom Petch’s debut feature film and I cannot wait to see his other achievement if this is just for starters. The Patrol needs to be seen.
Flickering Myth Rating: Film ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★ ★
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published April 21, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
