It tells the true story of the formation of the Special Air Service, a commando of the British forces whose mission is to liberate North Africa from German-Italian occupation during World War II.
Sometimes one wonders, not without a certain degree of guilt, how it is possible that I enjoy, and a lot, watching fictions in which the brutality and meaninglessness of war are the central issue. She until she remembers that, as a child, she left the dolls lying on the bed and took the Geypermans from her brother to play with them. She then understands that series like ‘The SAS Men’ (HBO Max) are exactly that: a testosteronic and kaffir game where entertainment is the main thing.
The series, based on the book ‘SAS Rogue Heroes’, by Ben Macintyre, and placed in the unruly hands of Steven Knight (‘Peaky Blinders’), tells the true story of the formation of the Special Air Service, a commando of the forces British whose mission is to liberate North Africa from German-Italian occupation during World War II. The commando arises when the Welsh Lieutenant Jock Lewes, a man so cold and self-possessed that he does not move a muscle when the bombs fall around him, it occurs to him that there is a more effective way to finish off the enemy air fleet. : do it by land. To do this, he contacts two former comrades in arms: the Scotsman David Stirling, a superb, competitive and proud guy, obsessed with surpassing his father’s warlike feats, and Paddy Mayne, a crazy, rowdy, drunken Irishman and poet who loves you the same way. recites Yeats that opens your head.
These three musketeers are played, respectively, by three actors in a state of grace: Alfie Allen (‘Game of Thrones’, ‘John Wick’), Connor Swindells (‘Sex Education’) and Jack O’Connell (famous for ‘Skins’ , and now appearing on Netflix in ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’). Along with them, and in a new hottie role, the great Dominic West. And a woman. Only one, yes, but the one we all want to be: Eve Mansour, the enigmatic, brave, attractive and intelligent spy played by Sofia Boutella.
With this group of characters, it’s clear that ‘Los hombres del SAS’ not only wouldn’t pass the Rorschach test (there’s not a single one that’s right in the head), but also the Bechdel test, since the series is full of alpha males and toxic masculinity, so toxic that Paddy Mayne has to repress his latent homosexuality. But, in exchange, there are explosions, shootings, fights, acid and witty dialogues and six episodes of guaranteed partying.
Accompanying Lewes, Mayne and Stirling, we find a group of men who are recruited in a juicy scene in which we see that, to join the SAS, you have to be aggressive, rowdy and anarchic. In addition, having been in a military prison for hitting a superior fattens the resume. The result of the recruitment is a command made up of guys who have little, if anything, to lose; Guys you wouldn’t even go for a beer with, but who you’d love to have by your side if things turn sour. As Stirling himself says, the war has given them the freedom to behave like the beasts that they are. Because war is brutal, and cruel, and it needs beasts that devour each other. For this reason, so that we do not forget, at the beginning of each chapter they remind us that the story is based on true facts, and they emphasize it by interspersing some real images among the fictional ones. It is at that moment, when remembering that all this happened, when ‘Los hombres del SAS’ goes from pure entertainment to scenes that show the extraordinary suffering that wars produce.
To make that pain more digestible and highlight the playful aspect of the series, ‘Los hombres del SAS’ makes use of resources, both aesthetic and musical, that row in favor of the work, that contribute to print a dynamic rhythm and that modernize its aesthetics. : on the one hand, the way in which the names of real people and places are stamped, with a loud bang, on the images; on the other, the soundtrack: if the Vietnamese towns are bombed to the sound of ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’, the fascists kill each other better and faster if the guitars of Judas Priest, Black Sabbath or AC/DC sound in the background. And let’s see who can’t resist playing with Steven Knight’s little soldiers while listening to ‘Highway to hell’.
#men #SAS #testosteronic #entertainment #rhythm #rock #roll