Armadillo, (Mentz, 2010) is a Danish documentary focusing on a small platoon of soldiers as they go to Afghanistan to complete a tour of duty. Directed by Danish filmmaker Janus Metz, and photographed by Lars Skree, the men spent six months with the troops at their base called Armadillo in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. Armadillo is a film revealing the young volunteers experiences of the highs and lows of combat. This essay will discuss the filmmaker’s techniques and the various ways in which he structured the story and whether his techniques allowed him to express his viewpoint.
Documentaries are thought to be one of three basic creative modes of film. While neither narrative fiction nor avant-garde, documentaries are often the work of individual filmmakers and are based on or re-creating an actual event, era, person or situation, containing no fictional information. In the early decades of documentaries, films focused on things …show more content…
Particularly in the combat sequences we see the footage filmed on go-pro’s connected to the soldiers helmets, this provides the viewers the impression they are a member of the platoon. One scene in particular where the audience notably may feel a part of the action is the last combat scene at the end of the film where the young troops has close combat which resulted in two injured Danes and the deaths of many Taliban members. As there was no interference from the filmmaker and this scene was purely from an observational stance, it cannot be said that Mentz intended to create a “good vs. evil” scenario between the Danes and the Taliban. However as discussed by Rabiger and Hurbis-Cherrier (2013), “Conflicts can even involve a struggle between opposing forces in which each side has virtuous objectives and good intentions, which makes it “right vs. right” – which is complex and challenging”
Documentaries are thought to be one of three basic creative modes of film. While neither narrative fiction nor avant-garde, documentaries are often the work of individual filmmakers and are based on or re-creating an actual event, era, person or situation, containing no fictional information. In the early decades of documentaries, films focused on things …show more content…
Particularly in the combat sequences we see the footage filmed on go-pro’s connected to the soldiers helmets, this provides the viewers the impression they are a member of the platoon. One scene in particular where the audience notably may feel a part of the action is the last combat scene at the end of the film where the young troops has close combat which resulted in two injured Danes and the deaths of many Taliban members. As there was no interference from the filmmaker and this scene was purely from an observational stance, it cannot be said that Mentz intended to create a “good vs. evil” scenario between the Danes and the Taliban. However as discussed by Rabiger and Hurbis-Cherrier (2013), “Conflicts can even involve a struggle between opposing forces in which each side has virtuous objectives and good intentions, which makes it “right vs. right” – which is complex and challenging”