War Machine trailer: Brad Pitt is an American general who must end the Afghanistan war

The trailer of the Netflix original film War Machine portrays its protagonist in a steely, determined manner, quite fitting of the title. In it, Brad Pitt plays a senior army general who is under pressure to put an end to the NATO operation in Afghanistan.

The trailer opens with Brad Pitt’s character proudly declaring “We are here to build! To protect, to support the civilian population,” to a room full of soldiers. They all listen with rapt attention as he tells them, “To that end, we must avoid killing them at all costs.”

We’re informed that the war in Afghanistan has been on for eight years, and most people are very pessimistic about the situation. Pitt’s character, however, is convinced that he can put an end to it. He is constantly reminded that he has to clean up the mess that America created in this region.

Brad Pitt’s character Dan McMahon looks confident with his more-salt-less-pepper hair, and we are told that it is his reputation and drive that are the reasons why he will get the job done. He is known as the man who “took Al Qaeda in the sack.”

MacMahon’s team is about to embark on a new direction which will see them build Afghanistan into a “new and prosperous nation”, to which an Afghan official replies by saying, “Sounds like the old direction”.

The trailer also has several shots which point to the hypocrisy of the war, such as the line where a soldier in MacMahon’s team talks about the futility of trying to convince people that you’re a good guy when you have a gun in your hand. The absurdity of the line, “We can’t help them and kill them at the same time; that ain’t humanly possible,” is only enhanced by the intense background music.

War Machine releases on 26 May 2017.

Watch the trailer here: