Armadillo (2010)
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 51
Fresh: 47 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 3,526
Movie Info
ARMADILLO is an astute exploration of the culture of war. Director Janus Metz follows Danish soldiers fighting the Taliban in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan with sophisticated visual artistry rarely achieved under such raw conditions. Building his film around the characters within the platoon, Metz allows us to witness how war transforms the different personalities, and the group, approaching his subjects with an intimacy equal to that of fiction. The active military base
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Armadillo Trailer & Photos
All Critics (52) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (4) | DVD (1)
Lets the soldiers tell their stories by the way they live day-to-day during their tour of duty.
Top CriticWhen the bombs go off and the bullets start flying, Metz and his cameraman provide a real-life vision of what a hurt locker is really all about.
It's alluring to watch.
The movie's strength and audacity comes from the Danish soldiers, who confront civilians with wariness or bluntness, exalt in their victories and hesitantly exhibit fear in each others' company.
There's little new in "Armadillo."
A mesmerizing, beautiful and terrifying documentary that can stand among the greatest war movies ever made.
One of the best war films in years.
Beautifully (and scarily) filmed and deeply moving.
Armadillo shows us things we haven't seen before.
Aficionados of the first-person format will be salivating over the footage captured by Metz and his cinematographer Lars Skree.
Armadillo is a harsh, honest document about men at war - any war.
...a mostly new twist to consider the Allies who support the U.S. effort - if it is heartbreaking for American families to send their youth to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, imagine how it must feel for the Danes.
A must-see for those not afraid of seeing and hearing a true statement of the horrors of war.
War doc sets itself apart with skilled storytelling
Metz captures and weaves together striking images with great craft. The actual hell of an actual war has never been so beautifully rendered.
You may be sick of war films about Afghanistan by now, but Armadillo's boldly objective take on the situation shouldn't be missed.
The film doesn't sit in judgment, but it does broaden our understanding of what's happening behind enemy lines - and behind the headlines.
Armadillo alternates between scenes of tedium on base and wildly dangerous raids, with the inadvertent effect that viewers get hungry for a little combat to alleviate the monotony.
Made with the visual polish and dramatic intensity of a fictional feature, Armadillo is a significant addition to the documentaries on the war on terror.
Audience Reviews for Armadillo
Super Reviewer
Documentary filmmaker Janus Metz and cameraman Lars Skree spent six months following the lives of young soldiers situated less than a kilometer away from Taliban positions.
REVIEW
As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have dragged on they have produced an increasing number of provocative war documentaries that have shattered many of the myths about the black-and-white absolutes of war that have often been sold to those on the home front. Armadillo is one of the best films yet produced about the reality of life during a war. The film follows a Danish unit assigned to Helmand Provence in Afghanistan during a 6 months tour. The filmmakers hold nothing back in this intimate portrait of soldiers at war. They present a picture of young men who seem to lose their humanity in the brutal circumstances of war. The visceral picture of combat is harrowing and the filmmakers should be commended for what they have captured on film.
A film like Armadillo makes us ask ourselves if this war is worth the human cost that we are paying and what it is doing to the soldiers that we are sending to fight these wars. The film has caused considerable controversy in Denmark.
Super Reviewer
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Movie: ID: 771206367 Title: Armadillo Release Date: 2011-04-15 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 6 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- Camp Armadillo (DE)
