‘The Kill Team’ Counts the Costs of War

While American Sniper generates debate over its protagonist’s patriotism as well as remarkable box office returns, here’s another film that considers the dire effects of war on its soldiers. on PBS’ Independent Lens, Dan Krauss’ The Kill Team focuses on the Maywand District murders, committed by US soldiers in 2010, a case made notorious by a Rolling Stone article that included photos of the soldiers posing with corpses.

Through interviews with Spc. Jeremy Morlock, who was sentenced to 24 years for his participation in the premeditated killings of three Afghan civilians, as well as his fellow soldiers, attorneys, and family members, the movie is structured around Morlock’s court case. In it, he argued that felt coerced by his fellows to participate, an exceedingly hard, subjective story to make convincing. But the larger story has to do with the transformation of young men into killers, how the US military structures, builds up, and can also lose control of its human machinery. Harrowing, intelligent, and urgent, The Kill Team makes visible the ongoing costs of war.

See PopMatters‘ review.