War Machine is a 2017 war drama, produced by by Netflix. Directed by David Michod (Animal Kingdom and The Rover), it is an adaptation of journalist Michael Hastings' book The Operators, itself an expansion of his Rolling Stone feature "The Runaway General" about General Stanley McChrystal and the War in Afghanistan. The article, which profiled drunkenness and backtalk toward the administration, led to McChrystal's firing by President Obama. Brad Pitt stars as General McMahon, tasked with ending the war in Afghanistan in 2009 but trying to win it instead.
Not to be confused with the Marvel Comics superhero.
The movie provides examples of:
- A Father to His Men: McMahon has this status with his staff.
- Artistic License – History: Austria is stated to have two soldiers in Afghanistan in 2010. Austria temporarily deployed 75 soldiers to Kabul in 2002 and 100 in 2005, but otherwise did not participate in the coalition.
- Buses Are for Freaks: Halfway through the film, McMahon's entourage is denied the permission to fly from Paris to Berlin due to the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. They narrowly manage to catch their appointment by chartering (and getting drunk on) a tourist bus, draped in some tacky livery.
- Butt-Monkey: Pete Duckman is constantly given grief by the rest of the team for his weight, sloppiness, and drunkenness (his real-life counterpart was less sloppy and kept in shape, as a Navy SEAL).
- The Cameo:
- Russell Crowe as General Bob White, an Expy of David Petraeus.
- Tilda Swinton as an unnamed German politician.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: McMahon is an Army Ranger, and formerly headed up special operations in Iraq before taking over command in Afghanistan (an unusual move for an SOF commander). His staff also includes other special operators.
- The Faceless: In his brief appearance, President Obama is only seen from behind or from a distance with his face out of focus.
- Formula for the Unformulable: How McMahon tries to explain the US counter-insurgency in Afghanistan to a conference audience in Berlin. The hilariously convoluted PowerPoint slide he uses is also rather typical
of the US Department of Defense. - Hair-Trigger Temper: General Pulver (also Truth in Television for his real-world counterpart according to the book).
- History Repeats: With McMahon fired, the job passes to General Bob White...who gets the same thumping introduction McMahon got.
- Interservice Rivalry: The military is at odds with the diplomatic staff, with McMahon and McKinnon constantly trading passive aggressive comments.
- Intrepid Reporter: Sean Cullen.
- Multinational Team: Deconstructed. While the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is an impressive coalition of like-minded nations on paper, the contributing countries struggle to figure out what they each actually want out of their involvement in Afghanistan. Most of them are in it to earn brownie points with the US, and their contribution is subject to their political whims. Much of the movie is spent on McMahon touring Europe to convince allied nations to send more troops for his surge strategy in Afghanistan.McMahon: Everybody has a reason not to be out there with everybody else. Austria only has two guys here.* Iceland has seven guys. This country won't fight at night. That country won't fight in the snow. This country wants to do counter-narcotics. That country won't do counter-narcotics. But if we're in the same room...
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Only two people are real-world characters (Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai). The rest are stand-ins for real people. Anyone familiar with Hastings' book or the War in Afghanistan at the time will be able to identify them.
- McMahon is Stanley McChrystal, Pulver is Mike Flynn, and the rest of McMahon's staff all are stand-ins for his senior staff.
- Secretary of State Edith May is Hillary Clinton.
- Bob White is David Petraeus.
- Sean Cullen is Michael Hastings.
- Ambassador McKinnon is Ambassador Karl Eikenberry.
- Richard is Richard Holbrooke.
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is mentioned, but not seen.
- Post-9/11 Terrorism Movie: Focused on the War in Afghanistan.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Pulver is the red to McMahon's blue.
- Regional Riff: Remember the scene of McMahon arriving in Paris, a military march playing as background? It is the Hohenfriedberger Marsch, associated with Prussia and Frederick the Great... not the most French piece of Music.
- Related in the Adaptation: Inverted. McChrystal's top intelligence officer and chief of staff, Mike and Charlie Flynn, are brothers. Their fictional counterparts, General Pulver and Cory Staggart, show no sign of being related.
- Shown Their Work: Key character traits, backgrounds, and whole exchanges of dialogue are direct from Hastings' The Operators.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Rolling Stone reporter Sean Cullen (a stand-in for Michael Hastings) only accompanies McMahon's crew for part of their European tour, and does little on-screen other than observing them and asking questions. His reporting eventually leaks out their trash-talking of the Obama White House, which leads to McMahon's swift dismissal from his post.
- The Quiet One: Cullen. It unsettles Pete.
