X
- 2023
- R
- United Artists Releasing
- 2 h 3 m
- 2023
- R
- United Artists Releasing
- 2 h 3 m
Summary After an ambush, Afghan interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim) goes to Herculean lengths to save US Army Sergeant John Kinley's (Jake Gyllenhaal) life. When Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family were not given safe passage to America as promised, he must repay his debt by returning to the war zone to retrieve them before the Taliban hunts them ...
Directed By: Guy Ritchie
Written By: Ivan Atkinson, Marn Davies, Guy Ritchie
- 2023
- R
- United Artists Releasing
- 2 h 3 m
- 2023
- R
- United Artists Releasing
- 2 h 3 m
Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
63
7.1
Where to Watch
Summary After an ambush, Afghan interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim) goes to Herculean lengths to save US Army Sergeant John Kinley's (Jake Gyllenhaal) life. When Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family were not given safe passage to America as promised, he must repay his debt by returning to the war zone to retrieve them before the Taliban hunts them ...
Directed By: Guy Ritchie
Written By: Ivan Atkinson, Marn Davies, Guy Ritchie
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
63
57% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
39% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
63
57% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
39% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
In “The Covenant,” Guy Ritchie tells a story of two men, but he’s really giving this war that never succeeded a kind of closure. He uses the power of movies to coax out the heart that fueled our actions, and that made our loss so hard to bear.
Guy Ritchie’s name not withstanding, there’s little here with strong mass appeal – not enough mind-numbing action; too much dwelling on a recent, tragic, failed war; and a muted catharsis. It’s also one of the best things Ritchie has done since his early years (only Lock, Stock is unequivocally better) and deserves a viewing when MGM brings it to streaming.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 144 User Ratings
7.1
72% Positive
104 Ratings
104 Ratings
17% Mixed
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
10% Negative
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 144 User Ratings
7.1
72% Positive
104 Ratings
104 Ratings
17% Mixed
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
10% Negative
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
Incredible film, excellent cinematography and excellent writing. You genuinely feel something watching this film, something not a given in today’s movie scene. How this is not rated higher, I do not know. I watched off the recommendation of a close friend and absolutely loved it.
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IN A NUTSHELL:
I love Guy Ritchie’s classic, stylish movies, so I was curious to see what he would do with a war movie. He worked as the producer, screenwriter, and director. The film follows US Army Sergeant John Kinley and his Afghan interpreter Ahmed in 2018.
The movie is a powerful tribute to the many Afghan interpreters who risked their lives and reputations to serve the US Army. It has everything you want in a war movie: action, drama, emotion, realism, honor, and a lot of heart.
THINGS I LIKED:
I adore Jake Gyllenhaal. He is one of the best actors out there these days, so I figured this movie would be excellent simply due to his performance. I was right. He’s amazing. Will someone please give this guy an Academy Award already? He has been in several award-winning films yet has only been nominated once for Best Supporting Actor in Brokeback Mountain. I don’t think that was even his best performance in a movie! Wait until you see his monologue to his wife in this movie.
Dar Salim also gave an excellent performance. We’re sure to see a lot more of him in future American movies.
Both Jake Gyllenhaal and Jason Wong starred in different Jarhead movies.
The rest of the cast includes Rhys Yates, Sean Sagar, Christian Ochoa Lavernia, Bobby Schofield, Jonny Lea Miller, Emily Beecham, and many more. Everyone did an outstanding job.
I wondered about the title of the movie because there are already quite a few other movies named “The Covenant.” At the end of 2022, Guy Ritchie said he had changed the name of the movie from “The Interpreter” to “The Covenant.” Based on the story, it could have easily been named “The Debt” or “The Commitment”, as Jake Gyllenhaal’s character called it.
Filming was done in Alicante, Spain. I lived in Spain for 2 years!
The musical score by Christopher Benstead is extremely effective.
Great cinematography that captures the rough terrain and lifestyles in Afghanistan.
Lots of action and tension. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
We get to learn a little bit about Afghan culture.
Keep watching during the final credits to see photos of some of the soldiers and their interpreters. Some of their faces are covered to protect their identity.
The movie is timely, as President Biden recently pulled the American troops out of Afghanistan…in a terribly botched manner, I might add. How he handled the withdrawal of troops was a complete disgrace to our country, but especially to our soldiers and their interpreters over there. His disastrous decisions cost many civilian and military lives, not to mention important equipment and money.
There is some humor, but not too much so as to distract or change the tone of the movie.
Act 3 is way more powerful than Act 1. Act 1 features some of the cliched dialogue seen in a million other Gulf War movies, but Act 3 takes this movie to a whole other level. Incredible.
THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
There are a couple of CGI moments that weren’t perfect, but I didn’t care.
It would have been amazing if this were a true story. Surely, there are real events similar to what we see in the film.
TIPS FOR PARENTS:
Profanity, including many F-bombs
Brutal violence with various weapons, as well as hand-to-hand combat
Blood
High dead-body count
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What Ritchie is able to convey is the terrifying nature of this kind of small-scale combat, with the enemy coming out from nowhere and from every direction. Even if you’ve never experienced anything like this, there’s something about what Ritchie does here that feels authentic.
The duo’s journey is gripping, but long stretches elsewhere in the film drag and it feels much longer than two hours.
For much of its running time, director Ritchie’s war movie manages to be topical, suspenseful, and moving. But partly because the story is fiction, Ritchie takes a few genre liberties that threaten to undermine the sincerity of his tale.
There is a great deal missing from Ritchie's film. "The Covenant" is almost aggressive in its complete lack of wartime litigation. While the harrowing nature of a soldier's experience is laid bare, the meaning of the actual, prolonged quagmire of the Afghanistan occupation will be lingering in the back of most audience's minds.
The film bangs the drum loudly on behalf of American exceptionalism.
Great movie! As a girl who hates gun-shooting movies, I truly enjoyed it. No shaking camera in action scenes is a great deal.
The film delivers a great message with an engagingly written plot. No matter which political view you are having, while in 2023 a lot of virtues have been a distant memory, Guy Ritchie's the covenant delivers a great story as suggested in its title.
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(Mauro Lanari)
Ritchie steps out of his comfort zone and very professionally films an epic and dramatic buddy movie centered on the value of friendship. It would have been a theme congenial to John Milius (does anyone still remember him?), while the peculiar style of the dyslexic director and Madonna's former husband is less so.
PS: Jake with a beard doesn't grow hair on his neck while he's injured. A superfluous detail like the protagonists who always wake up already wearing makeup.
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bad
[ bad ]
adjective, worse, worst;(Slang) bad·der, bad·dest for 36.
not good in any manner or degree.
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Production Company
STX Films,
Toff Guy Films
Release Date Apr 21, 2023
Duration 2 h 3 m
Rating R
Awards
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Location Managers Guild International Awards (LMGI)
• 1 Nomination
British Film Designers Guild Awards
• 1 Nomination
