Liongsate Play's Ambush begins with an informal conversation between Emirati soldiers working with equipment made from rubble and ruins. They talk about soccer, before one of them quotes Bruce Lee to state that he doesn't care who wins at soccer. It's a disarming sequence that puts you in the middle of a pressure cooker situation that everyone inside pretends is anything but. Life is always about winning or losing, even in the mundane or the municipal, but for the men on the front lines who use and face bullets, it is so much more than that. Perhaps that is why some of them avoid competition, the tendency of some to turn war into a kind of number sport. The Ambush is a decent peacetime thriller that doesn't have much to say about the philosophy of war, aside from the fact that once the bullets start flying, there may be very little to hold on to.
A contingent from the United Arab Emirates is providing aid in an unidentified country. On their last watch, Ali, Bilal and Hindasi are itching to head home after one last hurrah from a little note. Not all is rosy between the three of them, but when it comes to work, everyone is expected to pull their noses. The three set out on a regular patrol and are unexpectedly ambushed by local militants. Back at the base, the commander is notified of the incident and decides to go on an unlikely rescue mission. From there the game begins, not exactly cat and mouse, but easy target and pistol shooting. The Emirati forces are hemmed in on all sides, the three soldiers are cut off from the rest, and the odds are stacked against the incumbent. Only dumb luck can get people out of such a sticky situation.
Director: Pierre Morel
Writers: Brandon Birtell, Kurtis Birtell
Stars: Omar Bin Haider, Marwan Abdullah, Mohammed Ahmed
The Ambush, however, highlights that beyond luck there is also human perseverance, the elegance simply to overcome equally difficult situations, and the strength that comes from feeding on one's sense of purpose. Directed by Pierre Morel, The Ambush is realistic to look at and explosive in equal measure. It does its exploding parts to perfection and is indeed impressive in scale and authenticity. It's always hard to rate war movies by the sensuality of their action, but there's no bloodshed or excessive gore here to justify the film's intensity. The direction, possibly inspired by the messy and frenetic style of Paul Greengrass, overlaps perfectly with a more literary sense of action. There are close-ups, long shots, overheard markers, and some typical genre-specific shots, too. In one scene, an exploding vehicle does nothing to deter the commander, who nonchalantly turns and sits inside his vehicle.
As for the stories of the three protagonists at the heart of this film, there is not much to say except that they play the role of narrative hooks. The Ambush is ostensibly based on a true story, and in order to create something absorbing, creative leverage has been taken to transform the lives of pedantic soldiers into conflicted, often tenacious human beings who have a bone to pick on each other. One of the things about the film is its lack of exposure, or skin, if you will. Explosions and bullets enter the body at odd angles and tight spaces here, but the camera rarely uses that as a moment to serve up some sort of wicked nightmare. The film takes the right path of choosing not to satisfy their anticipation with the sight of nerves and tissue coming out of the torsos. In one scene, an explosion appears to pierce the side of a small truck through the legs of one of our protagonists. But even though he is being rescued, the film spares us the detailed horror of his injuries. History remains history, and does not descend into violent farce.
The Ambush, while cleverly made and well directed, doesn't have much to say about conflict and war that hasn't already been said. It has the murmurs of a Black Hawk Down, the textural simplicity of a Zero Dark Thirty, but not the drive or clarity of vision to really be what it set out to be. At times, The Ambush can feel like an action movie that's also meant to be a commentary on the war, and at times it can feel like a memoir, painfully dragging through pointless action sequences of pathos more than a couple of backstories and some family photos to hold on to. The point is that The Ambush is admirable for its technical achievements, its realism, and its cleverly orchestrated scale, but it has very little to say that would also make it memorable.
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