keelhaul-80856 I was wavering on rating this film 6 or 7. It had the potential to be a 9 or 10, and based on all the hype and netflix trailers, I hoped that it would be.There are plenty of brutal and heart-wrenching moments, and Idris Elba is a talented actor that I enjoyed as the warlord molding the kid army. However, I feel that there is some confusion and missing holes in this film, that somehow leave it disjointed. It seems to slow down half- way through, and missed out on designing a more powerful narrative and explanation for many of the things going on. In the end, it comes across as an overly-long war film, that just portrays the same things that many already know or believe about African war zones. I thought Blood Diamond did more to explain situations and build characters, while giving a greater understanding of the situation. There are some good character developments, as the boy becomes desensitized to violence and insanity around him, and some entertaining and intense moments, but it just doesn't match the exquisite film-making of other films on such subjects, or war films in general.I felt lost and kind of bored throughout the last half of the film, and found myself distracted and eating snacks, about to doze off for an afternoon nap. It needs something more!!!

msantos1116 The movie starts out following a typical middle-class family living in a small village in what appears to be West Africa. The movie then expands the context and shows us that the town is in the middle of a battle between the corrupt and violent United Nations backed government forces and the ragged pack of rebel fighters. As the peaceful townspeople decide to ship away women and children to allow the men to stay back and fight, there is no room for some of the younger boys, so they are also to stay behind. Agu, the film's protagonist, ends up witnessing the United Nations backed government forces senselessly execute all of his family members that remained in the village. Fortunately, Agu is able to flee these mentally disturbed, deranged, blood-thirsty, war mongering United Nations backed government forces as he runs deep into the bush.Now orphaned, Agu is on his own in the wild. It appears that he will have no chance of survival, as he can not even light himself a fire and is not sure of what he can eat. Fortunately, the story's hero, known as the "Commandant" (played by Idris Elba), has managed to save many other UN backed government created orphans. Commandant's crew of orphaned boys stumbles upon helpless little Agu. Much of the movie is related to how Commandant takes little Agu under his wing, teaches him survival, feeds him, clothes him, and allows him to exact his revenge on the evil UN backed government forces. Commandant is shown to be leading a pack of what appears to be 20 to 30 other boys and young adults, all presumably orphaned similarly to Agu and all with a thirst for revenge on those that murdered their families. Throughout the film, Commandant is first shown as a heroic warrior, then a wise leader, and then devolves into an ordinary human being. Although he is a true leader, he also answers to an authority. When he finds out that his authority cares more about political aspirations than providing justice, he tries to oust Commandant from his post. Commandant then goes rogue and takes his orphaned boy tribe with him. It is somewhat similar to Colonel Kurtz's situation in "Apocalypse Now", with the exception that Commandant does not really have a clue on how to lead a group of rogue dissidents.Ultimately, his orphans desert him due to lack of food, water, and hope. Commandant's demise can be attributed to the corrupt nature of war and the western world's political influences. Deep down, he was shown to be a genuinely good man, fighting for justice, all while being a protector and guardian of many orphaned children.Many will see this movie from a different perspective. One of the themes of the movie, which is something that plays out every day in real life, is that the subtle authoritarian rule of western governments is both the cause and solution to many of life's problems. First, they were directly responsible for the bloody and senseless murder of the families of many of these children. Secondly, as we see toward the end of the movie, these children are placed in a government-run school to learn and survive. Government creates the problems and then attempts to fix them. However, they did achieve their main goal. The villages they needed to eradicate are now gone, with all remaining residents under the guardianship of the state.This movie is a great example of how innocent lives are taken, families are destroyed, and entire communities are eliminated due to the military involvement of western societies. There is no doubt that this story is being played out for real in the Middle East and all over Africa due to both the United States' and many European countries' perpetual foreign intervention campaigns.

nagrinzone The film "Beast Of No Nation", directed by Cary Fukunaga, was set in West Africa and highlighted the popularity of children soldiers in the war. Agu and his family are off to flee to the country's capital, since the government is being run over by rebels, however on their way to escape, their family gets stopped by the rebels and Agu's family gets killed right in front of him. Agu then runs into the bushes and meets up with a rebel faction named NDF and he is trained to be a child soldier. From there, he and his rebel faction murder not only part of the country's military, but go on a killing spree through the country even when the people have done nothing wrong. When the Preacher becomes the new lieutenant, he recommends that all the soldiers surrender to the UN since they will either starve to death or be murdered, however the Commandment refuses to give up. Agu and the other child soldiers join the preacher in giving up and are sent to a missionary school, in which they receive food, shelter, and education.The movie was extremely well produced and really showed the effects of revenge and how the war scene that was taking place in Africa. The acting was phenomenal, especially the young children and how they presented their drainage of themselves after they have become young murderers, so to speak. The camera angles when they are killing the men and women are very impactful, especially in the scene where Agu makes his first kill along with another child soldier with a machete. When the boys are chopping the soldier's head in slow motion and the blood splatters onto the camera lens, it really emphasizes the brutality of the war and how these once innocent children were being introduced into blood thirsty savages. Overall, the film does an amazing job showing the inhumane conditions children and adults have to go through during the war and the effects it has on people in general.

Jake Griffin Beasts of No Nation is a Netflix original movie about Child slavery and its role during an African civil war. It is not known in which African country this movie takes place in but the idea was to show that situations like this movie happen in virtually every African country. The film takes us through the life of an African village boy named Agu (Abraham Attah). He is just a normal African boy in a buffer zone at first. What seem to be African rebels come through the village and start to kill anything that moves. Agu witnesses his father and big brother get assassinated by these rebels but he manages to escape. He then gets captured by the rebel group that he would end up joining. The Commandant brings Agu under his wing along with the other ruthless savages and he slowly becomes a rebel, like the ones that killed Agu's brother and father. Agu basically gets brainwashed into something he hated aka African Rebels. Overall, this movie does a fantastic job showing how child slavery really can effect a Civil War. It does a great job showing the psychological brainwash of making a child soldier as well. Abraham Attah aka the actor that plays Agu did an exceptional job as his role as the little African boy. Personally one of the best child actor performances I have ever seen. The film itself surprised me. I thought this movie was gonna be maybe a little boring but, it was the opposite. I really enjoyed it. The picture was phenomenal. The acting was pretty good as well, headlined by Abraham Attah's portrayal of the fictional Agu. If i had to rate this movie I would give it 8 or 8 and a half stars out of 10.