Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant: A masterfully manipulative war thriller

Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes:

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant follows US Army Sergeant John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Afghan interpreter Ahmed (Dar Salim). After an ambush, Ahmed goes to Herculean lengths to save Kinley’s life. When Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family were not given safe passage to America as promised, he must repay his debt by returning to the war zone to retrieve them before the Taliban hunts them down first.

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Review:

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Guy Ritchies’s The Covenant is quiet, introspective, contemplative- things that are not usually part of his directing style- thus the title’s need to remind the ticket buyer he has not wandered into the wrong movie- that he is indeed watching a “Guy Ritchie” movie.

The Covenant has Ritchie in outrage mode. There is a lot of shooting and violence, a lot of profanity. It’s just not so nudgey-winkey. Ritchie is mad that the United States has reneged on repatriation promises to all the Afghani translators who risked their lives to help rid their country of Taliban control. Even though the translator, Ahmed (Dar Salim) has proven trustworthy and reliable, saved the life of the main character- John Kinsey (Jake Gyllenhaal), Ahmed is abandoned, thus necessitating the promised covenant of the title. OnlyAhmed, a fictional character, is granted the promise our country denied the others. Ritchie is mad enough to want the viewer petition their politicians about it.

This is a Ritchie action movie, that dares speak of higher truths. And it delivers it with great emotional power. Ahmed went through great lengths to save Kinley for motives greater than a simple visa to a new country. Kinley in turn does the same for Ahmed. That’s the way the covenant is suppose to work. It operates brilliantly within the constraints of war movie and protest/rescue film.

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant gets a 3.5 out of 5 or a B+. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime.

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Credits:

Directed by

Guy Ritchie

Written by

• Guy Ritchie
• Ivan Atkinson
• Marn Davies

Produced by

• Guy Ritchie
• Ivan Atkinson
• John Friedberg
  • Josh Berger

Starring

• Jake Gyllenhaal
• Dar Salim
• Antony Starr
• Alexander Ludwig
  • Sean Sagar
  • Bobby Schofield
  • Emily Beecham
  • Jonny Lee Miller

Cinematography

Ed Wild

Edited by

James Herbert

Music by

Christopher Benstead

Production

companies

• STXfilms
  • Toff Guy Films

Distributed by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Release date

• April 21, 2023

Running time

123 minutes

Country

United States[1]

Language

English

Budget

$55 million[2]

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