Combat Obscura Explained

Director:Miles Lagoze
Producer:Miles Lagoze
Cinematography:Miles Lagoze
Editing:Eric Schuman
Distributor:Oscilloscope Laboratories
Runtime:70 minutes
Country:United States
Language:English
Gross:$10,100 (United States)

Combat Obscura is a 2018 documentary film about the War in Afghanistan, and the directorial debut of Miles Lagoze.

Background

Combat Obscura is composed of video footage taken from 2011 to 2012 by lance corporal Miles Lagoze and other cameramen from the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, in Sangin-Kajaki, Afghanistan.[1] [2] As a combat photographer, the footage was originally shot for recruitment and propaganda purposes.[3] After realising the film would have been unsuitable for propaganda due to its depiction of Marines swearing and smoking cannabis,[4] Lagoze proceeded to get it declassified so that he could keep it as a memory of his time in Afghanistan.[5] Lagoze left the Marines in 2013, and when studying film at Columbia University in 2018, he decided to start compiling the footage into a documentary.[6] As the documentary was shot with government-owned cameras, the Marine Corps threatened to take legal action against Lagoze, but did not follow through,[7] officially withdrawing their threat on February 28, 2019.[8]

Synopsis

Combat Obscura does not feature an overarching narrative, instead being composed of various disjointed scenes showing Marines in combat and R&R.[9] The film lacks a narrator, as Lagoze wanted to show an unfiltered view of war, saying "I think we’re at a point as veterans that we want to show war as it is. We’re kind of sick of the hero-worshipping."

Release

Combat Obscura premiered on March 1, 2018, at the True/False Film Festival, AFI Docs and FIDMarseille, among others, wherein "the audience loved it."[10] It was released for select screening and video on demand on March 15, 2019.[11]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, Combat Obscura has a 100% score,[12] whereas on Metacritic, it has an average of 56%, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13] Some reviewers contrasted the film negatively with Restrepo, another war documentary which employed a similar style of filmmaking, but included interviews, and suggested that Combat Obscura's lack of context made it difficult to understand.[14] [15] Conversely, The Daily Beast called it "one of the best documentaries in years".[16] Garcia Lawrence of The A.V. Club compared the film to , a war film released the previous year: "If The 15:17 To Paris saw three men who managed, against all odds, to fulfill their deeply ingrained ideals and become American heroes (“We got lucky,” one of them says toward the end), then Combat Obscura observes the countless others for whom heroism is no longer in the cards."

References

  1. News: Kenigsberg. Ben. 2019-03-14. ‘Combat Obscura’ Review: Afghanistan Uncensored. en-US. The New York Times. 2021-04-22. 0362-4331.
  2. Web site: Bowman. Craig. 2019-04-23. New Documentary Shows US Marines in Action in Afghanistan. 2021-04-22. WAR HISTORY ONLINE. en.
  3. Web site: Garcia. Lawrence. The gripping, numbing Combat Obscura detonates fantasies of military heroism. live. 2021-04-22. AV Club. en-us. https://web.archive.org/web/20190317000255/https://film.avclub.com/the-gripping-numbing-combat-obscura-detonates-fantasie-1833223425 . 2019-03-17 .
  4. Web site: Brown. Jack. 2019-06-10. Cinemadope: Combat Obscura, a marine’s film, offers a peek behind the curtain of war. 2021-04-22. Valley Advocate. en-US.
  5. Web site: Simkins. J. D.. 2019-03-15. ‘Combat Obscura’ is a brutally honest look at the blurred morality of the war in Afghanistan. 2021-04-22. Military Times. en-US.
  6. Web site: 2019-03-11. Eyes Of A Soldier: A Review Of Combat Obscura. live. 2021-04-22. Newcity Film. en-US. https://web.archive.org/web/20190403091324/https://newcityfilm.com/2019/03/11/eyes-of-a-soldier-a-review-of-combat-obscura/ . 2019-04-03 .
  7. Web site: Chakrabarti. Meghna. 'Combat Obscura': The Raw Reality Of A War Zone, As Filmed By Marines. live. 2021-04-22. www.wbur.org. en. https://web.archive.org/web/20190321150633/https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/03/20/combat-obscura-marines-war-documentary . 2019-03-21 .
  8. Web site: Szoldra. Paul. 2019-03-01. The war documentary the Marine Corps doesn’t want you to see is finally hitting theaters. live. 2021-04-22. Task & Purpose. en-US. https://web.archive.org/web/20200304120504/https://taskandpurpose.com/news/combat-obscura-theaters . 2020-03-04 .
  9. Web site: Barsanti. Chris. ‘Combat Obscura’ Just Blows It All Up. live. 2021-04-22. PopMatters. en-US. https://web.archive.org/web/20190403064904/https://www.popmatters.com/combat-obscura-miles-lagoze-2633315066.html . 2019-04-03 .
  10. Web site: Clark. James. 2018-04-05. This Marine-Made War Documentary Is So Raw The Corps Doesn't Want You To See It. live. 2021-04-22. Task & Purpose. en-US. https://web.archive.org/web/20200921034417/https://taskandpurpose.com/news/marine-afghanistan-documentary-combat-obscura . 2020-09-21 .
  11. Web site: Nordine. Michael. 2019-02-18. ‘Combat Obscura’ Trailer: A Wartime Documentary the Marines Don’t Want You to See. live. 2021-04-22. IndieWire. en. https://web.archive.org/web/20200126024155/https://www.indiewire.com/2019/02/combat-obscura-trailer-documentary-miles-lazoge-marines-1202044941/ . 2020-01-26 .
  12. Web site: Combat Obscura (2018). live. https://web.archive.org/web/20201118025625/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/combat_obscura. 2020-11-18. Rotten Tomatoes.
  13. Web site: Combat Obscura Reviews. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20201118173902/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/combat-obscura. 2020-11-18. Metacritic.
  14. Web site: Horton. Alex. The Marines don’t want you to see what happens when propaganda stops and combat begins. live. 2021-04-22. Washington Post. https://web.archive.org/web/20190314195255/https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/03/14/marines-dont-want-you-see-what-happens-when-propaganda-stops-combat-begins/ . 2019-03-14 .
  15. Web site: 2019-03-13. 'Combat Obscura': Film Review. 2021-04-22. The Hollywood Reporter. en.
  16. News: Axe. David. 2019-03-18. The Raw, Stunning Film the Marine Corps Doesn’t Want You to See. en. The Daily Beast. registration. 2021-04-22.

External links

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Combat Obscura".

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