Rating: R | Runtime: 123 minutes
Release Date: April 21st, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) / United Artists Releasing
Director(s): Guy Ritchie
Writer(s): Guy Ritchie and Ivan Atkinson & Marn Davies

Actually, I’m here to interpret.

I’m a Guy Ritchie fan, so I can say that it’s weird to see him direct a “real” movie. Even King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Aladdin feel like “Guy Ritchie” films in their quick-paced and stylish backstreet criminality. So, I don’t think I was wrong to assume the trailers for The Covenant were simply sidelining his wit. That it would still be a defining feature, nonetheless. Ritchie even co-wrote it with usual suspects Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies—another earmark for some goofy Hugh Grant or overcooked Jason Statham cameo that never comes. Because this is a bona fide earnestly drawn military brotherhood, behind enemy lines, against all odds survival film. There’s no time for humor or hijinks. The stakes are too high for frivolity.

As such, we get a chance to see Ritchie’s storytelling prowess isolated from his trademarked tone. That means less cuts (besides fever dreams) and more emotion. How far will Ahmed (Dar Salim) go to save the life of his Sergeant when it means dragging him through mountain terrain in Taliban territory? How far will Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) go to repay the favor by pulling all the stops to secure his savior visas so he and his family can find sanctuary in America? Because despite what popular jingoistic media would like us to think about Uncle Sam doing right by its native translators risking their lives in countries where doing so marks them as traitors, we all saw the footage of people being left at the airport when Biden pulled US troops from Afghanistan. Most of these men and women don’t get to leave.

The narrative is obviously heavy-handed, if not manipulative, in its motives as a result. Not only is the film literally just two acts of quid pro quo heroism that can’t avoid an almost fantastical air of hoo-rah patriotism, but Ritchie bookends everything with text that describes just how rare what he’s put on-screen is. With that built-in background, everything gets rendered with an even greater mythologizing. To see what Ahmed must do to keep John alive goes beyond the inspirational and into the superhuman as adrenaline pushes him to Rocky Balboa heights of physical perseverance. And watching John berate his peers and superiors into doing right by this translator forces the military to endure a bit of its own medicine since his survival earns him a level of mass media clout that has them not wanting his fight to go public.

And all that’s fine in the end. The idea that these two men learn to respect each other as human beings despite their different origins becomes little more than the scaffolding with which to put them through the wringer to see if they come out the other side. Ritchie and company are very clear that the Taliban are the enemy, not brown people nor Muslims at-large. So, the moment Ahmed proves his hatred of the Taliban is the moment John trusts him since the racist dehumanization of the “other” is literally all the military is these days. Once that happens, the film is both men running through walls for the other. Good surviving evil with a story that can’t help twisting Uncle Sam’s arm into keeping his promises. That Salim and Gyllenhaal are so good almost seems like an afterthought because Ritchie has us too involved in their characters’ plight to get distracted by the artifice.

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Dar Salim (left) as Ahmed and Jake Gyllenhaal (right) as Sgt. John Kinley in THE COVENANT, directed by Guy Ritchie, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film. Photo by Christopher Raphael.