WARHORSE ONE

Name: WARHORSE ONE
Item: WARHORSE ONE
Author: Cooper Dowd

"Sometimes Engaging, but Flawed"

Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

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Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

WARHORSE ONE is a war movie about a Special Forces American soldier, Richard Mirko, whose helicopter is shot down by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The lone survivor, Mirko must rescue a 5-year-old orphaned girl, whose family was just murdered by ruthless Taliban fighters. Mirko must escort Zoe to safety across mountainous terrain while single-handedly dispatching dozens of Taliban fighters. He will have to muster every ounce of skill, courage, strength, and determination to save the little girl and survive.

WARHORSE ONE sometimes plays like a glorified CALL OF DUTY first-person shooter game. However, it manages to conjure a fair amount of suspense, and the relationship between the hero and the little girl is enjoyable and heartwarming. WARHORSE ONE also has a strong moral worldview with strong Pro-American elements and some positive Christian references. That said, the movie is too long, and the action sometimes gets a bit repetitious. WARHORSE ONE is also marred by lots of strong foul language, including eight “f” words. In addition, it has very strong war violence with multiple gun battles. So, MOVEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

Content:

(BB, PP, C, FR, LL, VVV, S, D, M)

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral worldview with strong Pro-American elements and light Christian references about a selfless, heroic, presumably Christian American soldier in Afghanistan (soldier mentions “fate, destiny or the hand of God” in two scenes, for example) who rescues an orphaned 5-year-old girl of Christian missionaries from a large group of Taliban fighters who have no regard for innocent life, and American soldier tells story of a Muslim Afghanistan Muslim fighter helping his platoon who sacrificed his life for them, plus two Muslim fighters say, “Allah willing” three times in Arabic in two scenes, another Muslim says,

Foul Language:

Eight “f” words, two “s” words, one “a” word, two different “b” words

Violence:

Pervasive war violence with extreme violence and blood spray in multiple gun battles, helicopter shot down, bloody image of a fatally wounded missionary, American soldier throws knife into face of Taliban fighter and then rushes him to stab him repeatedly, seeing this triggers 5-year-old girl’s memories of Taliban fighters murdering her parents and brother, man stabbed in back, a mine and a grenade explode in two separate scenes

Sex:

No sex scenes but man looks at suggestive pictures of women’s faces on a cell phone

Nudity:

No nudity

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Numerous characters smoke cigarettes, but no drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Soldier tells little girl he doesn’t care what the Taliban fighters pursuing them believe but, if they intentionally hurt innocent people, they’re the “bad guys,” soldier teaches girl to throw a knife, and Taliban fighter deceives American soldier.

More Detail:

Are there enough movies where a grizzled warrior cares for a small child while going Rambo on endless hordes of nameless stock villains? Weren’t LOGAN, THE MANDALORIAN, THE WITCHER, and THE LAST OF US sufficient enough? Not according to writer and star Johnny Strong of the war movie WARHORSE ONE.

Strong plays Master Chief Richard Mirko, a Special Forces operative whose helicopter goes down in Afghanistan as American troops leave the country for good. Evading Taliban fighters and searching for a way out of enemy territory, Mirko finds Zoe, the orphaned child of Christian missionaries killed by the Taliban. Mirko escorts Zoe to safety through some mountainous and forested terrain while single-handedly dispatching dozens of Talban fighters along the way.

WARHORSE ONE is a glorified CALL OF DUTY first-person shooter movie. The hero must fight off dozens, if not scores, of Taliban fighters to protect Zoe and get her to the exfiltration spot where another American helicopter can take them out of the country. The movie is too long, and the many gun battles sometimes become rather repetitious and monotonous. WARHORSE ONE also has some shaky camerawork, sloppy color grading and poor acting. However, the story still manages to conjure a fair amount of suspense, and the relationship between the hero and the little girl is strong.

Also, WARHORSE ONE has a strong moral worldview with some positive Christian references and strong Pro-American elements. The movie stresses heroism, protecting the life of a child and sacrifice.

That said, WARHORSE ONE is marred by some strong foul language, including eight “f” words and very strong war violence with multiple gun battles. Also, in one scene, the hero mentions a Muslim soldier working for the American who sacrificed his own life for the hero’s platoon. The bad guys, however, are all Muslim fanatics.

MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for WARHORSE ONE.