Exploring the Action-Packed World of Guy Ritchie's 'The Covenant'

"Guy Ritchie's The Covenant" is a discomfiting war film that follows a U.S. sergeant (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his Afghan interpreter (Dar Salim) as they search for bomb manufacturers in Afghanistan. The film tugs on the audience's conscience, making a powerful case to turn the American public's attention back to the conflict. Despite its clichés, the film is morally outraged about the broken promises made to thousands of Afghans who believed they'd earned Special Immigrant Visas only to be abandoned to fend for themselves. The action scenes suffer from the gamification of combat, but the film's fraught and nearly dialogue-free escape sequences are driven by a meaty, hand-thumping score.