“Combat Obscura” opens with various disclaimers expressing that nothing onscreen reflects official approach or has Defense Department support. Given that the following minute the screen demonstrates a blast — and somebody yells “that is the wrong structure!” — the explanation behind the alerts is promptly clear.
As a United States Marine in Afghanistan, Miles Lagoze, the chief, filled in as a videographer, reporting scenes of war for authority discharge. (We see a clasp of such material on CNN halfway through the film.) Somehow, Lagoze kept his hands on unreleased film he and others shot in Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012, and made it the reason for this film.
There is a decision in the film to shun point of view and plot. None of the warriors are ever formally recognized, their central goal is never clarified, and their choices are never considered — on or off the war zone. What runs over rather is a kind of significant uselessness. The officers remain in for all warriors, the mission is inexpiable, and their choices need thought. Be that as it may, “Combat Obscura” isn’t an arraignment of individual Marines — they are for the most part just children, young fellows with vast weapons and considerably progressively critical obligations. The film rather appears to be increasingly keen on coming clean: That if there was importance behind the U.S. intrusion, there’s seldom significance present on the combat zone.
A genuine test for “Combat Obscura,” however, in this time of GoPro cameras and YouTube, is to make an unmistakable depiction between Lagoze’s movie and the scores of recordings created by the youthful troops battling in Iraq and Afghanistan who are transferring them straightforwardly on the web. The undeniable contrast is that “Combat Obscura” is a film where others are awkwardly created blasts of activity. What the film should offer is knowledge or setting or point of view, in light of the fact that regardless of whether such characteristics are purposefully left on the cutting room floor, without them “Battle Obscura” turns desensitizing, the viciousness less stunning, the blasts of gunfire less amazing. What begins as nerve racking and awful turns out to be pretty much desensitizing. Which is the direction of a warrior’s understanding. The unstable highs and intolerable fatigue are an intense and destabilizing blend. Ordinary turns out to be difficult to recognize. Also, the experience hard to vocalize. So while Lagoze’s film may not offer any truly new experiences, it is an agitating chance to manage observer to the desensitizing disarray of war.