Warhorse One - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Warhorse One



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Warhorse One starts out strong, with a setting backed up against the recent pull out of Afghanistan, and the premise of getting out American civilians who are caught up in all of this. It’s a solid premise, especially considering how raw and gaping the wound is of us pulling out of the middle East after 2 decades of conflict there, and the hubbub and chaos that would be pulling as many innocent civilians back across the boarders into safety. But sadly Warhorse One abandons that premise for the most part, devolving into your typical “man under fire” macho soldier cliches that has been done a dozen times before. Just with a much lower budget, weaker acting, and a fairly light script this go around.

A group of American missionaries who were helping with translation are caught in the surrounding chaos of the U.S. military pulling out of Afghanistan. They’re sticking around until the bitter end trying to get as many people evacuated as possible, only to be stuck between an advancing force of Taliban looking to make a show of force as the Americans leave. The only people close enough to help them out are a SEAL team led by Master Chief Richard Mirko (Johnny Strong), who is pulled away from their regular duties to act as escort for the civilians.

Mirko and his helo is shot down before they’re able to make the target, with only Mirko surviving the blast. Waking up and figuring out what happened, Mirko refuses orders to evacuate and pull out while he still can, and forges ahead to find out that the family that he’s been sent to escort has been wiped out by the Taliban. The only one left is the youngest daughter Zoe (Athena Durner), and now it’s up to Master Chief Mirko to carry her across miles of dangerous terrain, and evade Afghani troops until he can get the little girl to safety and complete his mission.

The basic setup here is solid enough, but the film starts to devolve quickly when it heads into Behind Enemy Lines territory. Strong just doesn’t have the writing, directing or acting skills to pull this off and make Warhorse One more than the sum of its parts, and neither does anyone else involved. Strong passionately tries his best to make this a rousing action movie, with Mirko your typical SEAL team tough guy, and somehow finding meaning in rescuing the young daughter of the wiped out missionary family. Unfortunately the stodgy acting, mediocre action cinematography, and middling dialog don’t do the film any good. What could have been a mildly entertaining action flick becomes boring and frustrating real quick. Especially has the film breaks the 2 hour mark and still shlogs on.






Rating:

Rated R for violence and some language




Video:

As is the case with most of the Well Go USA titles, I couldn’t find much information online about the cameras used, or the master’s resolution for the home video release, but it’s pretty obvious that the 2.35:1 AVC encode is struck from a really nice looking digital camera system. The film is abundantly clear, with great detail levels all around, and a ton of nuances to the picture. The massive amounts of wilderness shots is dazzling with the heavily blasted greens and browns saturating the image. I did notice that Strong would employ some heavy green and yellow filters when dealing with the Afghani towns, though, which stands out from the sparklingly clear wilderness shots. Primary colors splash nicely with great saturation levels, but I did notice skin tones are pushed heavily towards the red/orange side of the spectrum. Not horribly so, but just enough for me to notice that skin tones were more pumpkin than I was expecting.









Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is a solid contender as well, with a fantastic sense of immersion throughout, despite it not having a big blockbuster budget. The mix is spacious and clear, with a nice sense of ambiance out in the wild. Suppressed 5.56 rounds make a compelling “psh” as Mirko takes out the insurgents, and the more intense action bits carry with it a good amount of bass too. My only real complaint is a weird sort of “hollow boomy” note that the action takes near the final 3rd of the film in the village. The gunshots don’t sound natural, let alone stylized in your typical Hollywood fashion. Instead it’s more like you’re listening inside of a pot, with the gunshots sounding boomy and there some reverb applied to it. It could be a stylistic take on the action, but it’s a bit odd and took me out of it more than once in that final conflict.












Extras:

• Director's Commetnary Featurette
• Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score:
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Warhorse One isn’t BAD, but it’s not good either. Johnny Strong really does try his best to make a somber and thought provoking story of the problems we created over in the Middle East, but it’s filled with cliches, action stereotypes, and poor storytelling which sort of robs us of any impact the film might have had. The audio and video are easily the best parts of the entire film, giving us solid technical aspects at the very least. There’s even a near hour long commentary on the disc as well, which is more than most Well Go USA titles get at least. Sadly, the film itself is a bit of a chore, and not something I’d recommend unless you see it on a streaming service. Skip it is going to be my personal recommendation.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Johnn Strong, Athena Durner, Raj Kala, Siya, TOdd Jenkins
Directed by: William Kaufman, Johnny Strong
Written by: Johnny Strong
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: R
Runtime: 126 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: November 7th, 2023

Recommendation: Skip It