Rosamund Pike plays hard-drinking, chain-smoking famous female foreign correspondent, Mary Colvin to the letter in A Private War. Colvin never avoided areas of conflict, but went right for them and Pike does the same here. Shooting this film was no walk in the park. Pike has been in a few war-themed films this year, but we think her performance in this one is the best.
The film is based on this fearless journalist’s memoir. This is documentary Director Matthew Heineman’s (Cartel Land) first foray into making a feature film, but it still has a documentary feel. He has created an extremely detailed and horrifying picture of not only what war is like and Colvin’s life, but a statement on the importance of reporting to move governments to do something. Colvin was so dedicated and many say “addicted” to exposing what was happening to civilians in places like Syria and Sri-Lanka; just some the countries she covered.
Heineman puts you right in the middle of the action following Pike as Colvin taking cover from onslaughts of gunfire and bombs, jumping into the backs of trucks, running to what she knows could be trouble and filing her reports while bombs are going off around her. It’s filled with tension, death and drama. She infuriates you with her self destructive tendencies. There’s a continual sense of dread that hangs over the entire film. She made history getting the last interview with Libya’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi before he was killed.
Heineman shot the film in Jordan and used local civilian extras who had actually lost family members to bombings. In one of the most devastating scenes in the film, a father is mourning uncontrollably over the death of his very young son. Heineman cast a man who didn’t have to act. His own young son had been killed the same way.
Colvin’s story is fascinating. She grew up in Long Island and worked on a school newspaper at Yale. Then was sent to Paris and worked for Great Britain’s The Sunday Mail starting in 1985. Tom Hollander plays her demanding Editor who wanted the story by deadline, but worried about her doing it safely. She lost an eye to a grenade covering the conflicts in Sri Lanka, but proudly wore a black patch like Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. No prosthetic for her. The eye patch became her moniker and a fashion statement.
Pike as Colvin enlists a photojournalist en route to a battlefield assignment. Jamie Dornan plays Paul Convoy who documented Colvin’s exploits. Dornan is mild mannered in the role accompanying her into situations which he was well aware were dangerous. He plays her protective sidekick but Pike is dominant in the role. She’s strong as Colvin calling the shots.
Seeing her file live reports to Anderson Cooper at CNN using some pretty shaky and primitive video phone call connections makes you understand how far internet capability has come in a few short years.
The film shows that Colvin was her own worst enemy, drinking, smoking like a chimney, always looking for trouble. She was labeled an adrenaline or news junky. Having worked in TV news, we can relate, but not on Colvin’s scale. She suffered plenty physically and emotionally. The film touches on her failure at romantic relationships. She was divorced and there are scenes of her with a love interest played by Stanley Tucci that seems a waste of time and talent in the film. She suffered from undiagnosed PTSD that cut relationships short since she was driven to go back in the field time after time. Dangerous as it was, she went back again to the Syrian city of Homs. That’s where she died during an attack in 2012.
The film shows that Colvin was her own worst enemy, drinking, smoking like a chimney, always looking for trouble. She was labeled an adrenaline or news junky. Having worked in TV news, we can relate, but not on Colvin’s scale. She suffered plenty physically and emotionally. The film touches on her failure at romantic relationships. She was divorced and there are scenes of her with a love interest played by Stanley Tucci that seems a waste of time and talent in the film. She suffered from undiagnosed PTSD that cut relationships short since she was driven to go back in the field time after time. Dangerous as it was, she went back again to the Syrian city of Homs. That’s where she died during an attack in 2012.
Pike says playing the role took its toll on her too, affecting the actress in ways she never expected. She thinks about the people in the Middle East still going through the bombings and having to flee their homes. Like Colvin researching her stories, Pike did same, even going out into the fields with MAG, a women’s organization that walks the fields looking to uncover land mines.
This flawed woman made the world see the inhumanity of war and the plight of refugees on live TV. Interesting that after her death, Stony Brook University on Long Island established the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting in her honor. Pike and Heineman hope this film will help people have a broader understanding and get engaged in helping in their own way. This gutsy reporter waged her own private war. Now you can see it.
