The war on drugs,
having grown into the size and scale of a “traditional” war, has established as
a perfect example of a never-ending conflict. The United States government
sends advisors whose advice doesn’t improve the conditions of the Latin
American countries that have been torn apart by violence and institutional
corruption. Private security companies reap a profit as well, but it is a
soul-wrecking job for men like Santiago “Pope” García (Oscar Isaac), a weary
advisor who leads the most recent assault against the operations of drug lord
Lorea. Police officers are taken down by bazookas and heavy fire, before Santiago
wins the fight with a precise, calculated firing of his grenade launcher.
Precision is one of the major motifs in this story, and it appears constantly,
imbuing every aspect of the action scenes. Santiago wins the fight for the country’s
police, which proceed to execute most of their prisoners, after one of them
begs for his life declaring that he knows that Lorea is hiding in the jungle,
in a house that holds all his cash money. Santiago verifies this information
with his informer, the beautiful Yovanna (Adria Arjona) whose brother has
become involved in Lorea’s business. Yovanna wants herself and her brother out
of Lorea’s grip, while Santiago wants out of his life, wishing to cash out with
two big scores: killing Lorea and taking his money as a final payment for a
lifetime of thankless soldiering.
Santiago assembles
a team, Seven Samurai style, of former Special Forces comrades with whom he
wishes to share the money and a final successful mission. Francisco “Catfish”
Morales (Pedro Pascal), a pilot that is both grounded in personality and
grounded by the revoking of his license after a cocaine-smuggling charge; Martial
arts expert Ben Miller (Garret Hedlund) who moonlights as an MMA fighter; and
Ben’s brother Captain William “Ironhead” Miller (Charlie Hunnam) a blood-knight
who relishes his skills and lifestyle as a “warrior”, and who has trouble
adjusting living to a civilian lifestyle, especially when he’s prone to
strangling people for not moving their carts at grocery store. William’s
reputation precedes him as he makes a living in the pep-talk circuit in
different army bases, when Santiago comes forward with his offer to take out
Lorea and take his money. William will join him as long as he convinces Captain
Tom “Redfly” Davis to join them. Tom is a divorced father who fails at selling
crappy condos, and who struggles to pay his alimony. He is the tactician of the
team, and he has a Sherlockian mind. He is very hesitant to join Santiago, but his
lack of money, family obligations and peer pressure finally convince him to advice
the team and join them.
Triple Frontier is a military heist movie disguising a Greek tragedy
about fate, greed and the stories that we tell ourselves about our lives in
order to motivates us. The team’s plan moves forward and J.C. Chandor (director
of the great A Most Violent Year, Margin Call and All Is Lost) directs these
scenes with a purity of style and clearness, his suspense scenes allowed to
breathe and develop in due time. The action scenes are realistic as mentioned,
quick and precise. Triple Frontier is
an action movie that eschews all the vices of action movies of the 21st
century: there are no constant extreme close-ups, jittery cam, quick editing,
confusing geography. Everything is as clearly framed as a drama, because that’s
what it is. Things go right for the team, and then things do not, unravelling piece
by piece. One is caught in a hurricane of emotions: on the one hand and by the
nature of the genre, we expect our protagonists to achieve their mission and
get the money that they feel they deserve, and we empathize with them. But once
we catch glimpses of some of their darker sides and they make some brutal
choices, our loyalty as viewers vacillates. And that is a perfect summary of
the relationship between the way we romanticize soldiers and what they actually
do. At one point, the characters point out that without having a flag on their
shoulders, everything they do will be considered murder and robbery. The line
is that thin.
In Chandor’s and
Mark Boal’s script, things are not clear-cut, and even some narrative aspects
are purposefully kept in the dark. Tom suspects that Yovanna might be lying
about her relationship with Santiago. She insists she is telling the truth. Tom
moves on, but he still believes that she is lying to cover up something. This suspicion
is not solved, but is one of many such aspects of the movie that makes it
interesting. The number of tragedies and accidents that occur in the film
cannot be clearly traced to a single source, besides the fact that the mission should
not have been undertaken in the first place. Every character’s personal flaws
and motivation help carve the tragic path of each character. Tom wants the
money to take care of his family and not feel like a civilian loser to the
point that he ignores his logical side; William is so overcome by his warrior’s
pride and by his identity as a man of violence that he takes decisions based on
this idea of himself; Santiago talks about wanting to take out Lorea because he’s
a virus that has infested the country, and he wants to take the money out of a
sense of entitlement for his years of service as an agent of the world’s
police, but killing Lorea won’t stop the war on drugs or institutional corruption—and
he will be replaced by one or more men like him, or worse—and his justification
for taking drug money is extremely thin. I must admit that I was disappointed in
the casting of Lorea, because I didn’t find him an intimidating or memorable
presence, but that’s also the point: he’s a generic villain, just another drug
kingpin among hundreds. The true antagonist of the movie is each character’s
foibles and Providence itself, which gives and takes as it sees fit.
A film where every
character choice matters and every action has a consequence, Triple Frontier is unlike many films
today. Shot in gorgeous locations and with a classical sense of framing and
editing, it is a worthy follow-up for great Netflix movies like The Outlaw King. This is a movie I wished
I could have seen in the big screen. I liked it that much. In the meantime, I
will enjoy repeat viewings of this thrilling modern-day version of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
