This is not a political post – it’s a movie review. A harrowing documentary of people literally chasing enormous cargo planes down the runway of Kabul International Airport, hoping that if they could only cling to the outside of the last planes out, their lives would be spared.
It’s also the story of a group of US Marines whose mission was to keep the airport open – not an easy mission when hundreds of thousands of desperate people are trying to breach the entrances. They are women and children, many of them, and the Marine are sympathetic to their collective plight, while trying to make sure no additional lives are lost in the process.
The whole thing – everything about everything is f*cked up. How does one keep a sense of humanity when would-be refugees are wading in human waste, the Taliban are on the way in, and just for good measure, Al Qaeda detonates a bomb outside the airport that kills 13 Marines and many civilians.
Directed by Jamie Roberts (“Four Hours at the Capitol”) the film presents a massive cache of never-before-seen footage, much of it from cameras worn by the actual troops. The images are crystal clear and feel like “right now.”
America’s longest war, 20 years, came down to 18 crazy days as the US withdrew its military presence. A deal had been made with the Taliban by the previous administration and was honored, with a slight delay, by the current administration.
So, on the one hand, a deal is a deal – a deadline is a deadline – but the chaotic evacuation made almost no one happy.
Except for the Taliban. Roberts gives several Taliban higher ups a chance to speak in interviews, just as he does with several Marines. The Taliban leaders speak of victory, of having been raised to hate Americans, and the joy of watching them fly away.
The troops interviewed are sober, articulate, and obviously haunted. They will never forget the things they saw. One finally breaks down in tears after having been all business throughout the film.
Our folks, at least this group, really did care about the human beings on the other side of the razor wire – gently receiving babies that are being passed over the fence by their hopeless parents.
The reason I highly recommend this doc is the same reason I asked folks to watch Roberts’s previous film, Four Hours at the Capitol; there are so many things you didn’t see on the news- so many stories that weren’t told since then.
And while the subject matter isn’t exactly uplifting, the mission evacuated some 124,000 people during the Kabul airlift, the largest in modern U.S. history. Those left behind also appear on camera – educated women, for example, who are now prohibited from working or getting an education.
Escape from Kabul is on HBO and streaming on HBO Max starting September 21st
