As we move into the Oscar Season — I am reviewing films from the fall. A PRIVATE WAR is a film that likely will not win an Oscar, despite an Oscar winning director, and an Oscar nominated actor who gives an Oscar worthy performance. This ought to be the period where male and female actors are held as equal not separate and compete against one another for awards — this past year gave so many stellar leading roles for women that the dramatic bar iis set somewhere in the moons orbit. There are women directors, and directors of color unlike any other — kind of reminds me of the midterm elections in terms of land-slide. I’ll be giving you a look several other films if you want to get a head start: The Hate You Give, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Kindergarten Teacher, Destroyer, Roma, Widows,

So — A Private War— Things are not wrapped up in a tidy fictional bow in the end. I really should have used one of the gorgeous shots of Rosamund Pike in the protagonist role — but that would be misleading. You may want to understand the history in more detail — given the story turns on a region of the world where the USA has troupes on the ground in several countries — at least for the moment. You will be mad as hell and guilty too. So I have posted a two part series on Bioethics Screen Reflections http://www.bioethicsscreenreflections.com — with some references.

It is a hard story to tell, about a woman with a compulsion to change just one thing — the capacity for anyone to say “But I didn’t know that atrocity was going on.” If you vote, anywhere in the world — if you believe science and technology should be used for beneficent purposes and war doesn’t meet that bill, and if you, I dare say —believe in love— this is a film you need to see.

In the spirit of full disclosure — many readers of my novel Chasing Mercury know that one of the protagonist, Forest, is a whistleblowing journalist. They are not easy types to live with— or without.