aquascape Another Netflix original war drama film that tries to struck gold, as it did with the breathtaking "Beasts of No Nation", but sad to say it doesn't meet the same expectations."Sand Castle" takes the events of the Iraq War to more of a rehabilitation effort during the conflicts. It follows a platoon of soldiers who must restore the water system of a Iraqi village that was bombed by the same US Army. While the soldiers were doing damage control, the tension between them and the villagers is palpable and dangerous, put significantly on screen in great lengths by director Fernando Coimbra.This movie won't leave you thinking at the end of it nor will it be imprinted on your brain for time to come, but it's a very good approach to an Iraq War setting and from a point of view where the US army helps the native communities.

offsmith The movie is slow to develop, with the first 60-65 minutes strung out with few to little action and not much developing other than some small character relationships and developments.The movie I feel does a great job from a soldiers perspective in what some deal with and how they cope. In addition to how the botherhood bonding is and takes place as well as how one's feelings change over time. The movie picks up with fury for the last 45 minutes with some great battle scenes and some sadness. Again the characters take on massive character changes and the relationships come into play. The main character is very easy to relate with and like-able. The main character also has a very good character arc. Good story line and plot as well. I recommend this movie.

jantriska-63546 My initial reaction to seeing this low-key but powerful film was along the lines of "wow, that's some intense stuff...and fairly well acted". I also liked the premise of it, the basic plot line. However, there are a number of issues with the film.\First off, since it is supposedly set in the very early phase of the Iraq occupation (2003), there would not yet have been this open Sunni-Shiia hostility and the well-organized guerilla resistance/terrorism by local malcontents. These incidents were only starting to crop up in 2004 and really came to the fore in 2005, 2006. Second detail is the low level of security that the US soldiers seem to deploy while trying to work with random locals. For example, there's no way that a suicide bomber with a cooler full of explosives would have smuggled himself into an actual construction site. I was also left wondering why the main protagonist was sent back to the States and effectively relieved of duty, as opposed to the other guys. It may have been left undefined for the artistic purposes but in a real army setting, there would have been a debrief. Is he seen as suffering from a kind of PTSD or as having gone a bit rogue, or is it a case of "mission not well handled"? The feeling it left was one that army cadres were feeling a bit sorry for this college kid and were shipping him to where he could do no harm or come in harm's way. There is this kind of a rush to wrap up the script and end the story, which rubbed me the wrong way.As an allegory or a stylized cautionary tale, though, this is powerful - and intimate - film because it does get inside the heads of some characters and because the characters are compelling. The difficulties of working with the Iraqis and generally in an alien cultural environment were portrayed in an interesting way.This is not a fast-paced, high body count war action flick. But some of the action sequences are intense. Lots of mixed feelings about this one.

Harrison Tweed (Top Dawg) Lots of war-type films have come out over the years, and most are OK to meh, but something about this one was done better than most. Aside from the exceptional directing by Fernando Coimbra, it's not like it had top actors in it, but his directing gave it a feel of a documentary/drama, and added interesting action and drama twist to it. Better than I expected, although slowly paced. It's a 7/10 from me