However, fissures break open when Ritchie turns his visual interests away from Salim to Gyllenhaal. Sadim also displays an intelligence that runs counter to the brawny, gut-check soldier seen in other war films. Salim is totally connected with how his broad frame plays to the camera how these soldiers see him as a threat, often not even acknowledging his presence, even though he is there to help them.

He is unafraid to speak up or to go off script, such as negotiating with an informant or correcting the unamused Kinley of his errors. From knowing the local drug trade to being able to tell when someone is lying instantly, Ahmed demonstrates that he is an intelligent man intimately aware of the happenings around him. Because though the gaze of cinematographer Ed Wild’s camera appears attached to Kinley, it’s actually enraptured by Ahmed. That stoicism gives the script by Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, and Marn Davies so much intrigue. We discover later that Ahmed is more attached to bringing down the Taliban than he lets on. When Ahmed arrives to fill the vacant position, it might surprise the viewer to hear his brusqueness the job is merely a paycheck to him. Their translator attempts to get an Afghan truck driver to open his payload, only for a bomb to be detonated, murdering the translator and two other soldiers. For instance, during the opening scene Kinley and his men-a team specializing in the recovery of explosives or weapons of mass destruction-are conducting roadside checks. In “The Covenant,” we’re immediately given an immersive view of the dangers hanging over all involved. But Ritchie eventually awakens from his stupor, pushing this combat-action flick to gonzo territory. If “The Covenant” were only an interrogation of the hollowness of American exceptionalism, as its first hour suggests, it’d be among the most honest portrayals of the country’s role in the region.

The Great Movies by Roger Ebert