The Covenant is accurate–which is to say, it’s brutal. In the fictional, but all-too-realistic look at life in Afghanistan during America’s intervention, Sgt. John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) watches friends die. He watches their trucks blow up. He watches bullets go through their heads. And he watches members of the Taliban gun him down and concuss him, effectively ensuring his own death in the middle of enemy territory, seemingly without any way out. And then, miraculously, he watches his interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim) save his life, resulting in a bounty on both their heads, only later to watch the U.S. government abandon Ahmed after promising visas to him and his family.
What follows is John’s attempt to rescue Ahmed with a foe as difficult to overcome as any enemy combatant: the United States federal bureaucracy.
Guy Ritchie directs The Covenant without his typical cinematic hallmarks or visual flairs. The violence is neither stylized nor humorous—it’s horrifying and graphic. For that matter, The Covenant doesn’t feature any bells and whistles. It’s shot in a straightforward manner, with clean cinematography that simply lets the story speak for itself. The Covenant succeeds through its earnest storytelling, clearly showing Ritchie’s anger at the horrible treatment of Afghans who helped the U.S.
Alec Dent is a former culture editor and staff writer for The Dispatch.
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