Beaufort (2008)
82%RT Audience Score: 72%
Awards & Nominations: 4 wins & 6 nominations
Beaufort, a film directed by Joseph Cedar, is a gripping and surrealistic portrayal of soldiers facing the emotional and physical toll of combat. While some critics found the lack of hand-holding frustrating, Cedar’s attention to detail and refusal to preach or pontificate make for a powerful and engaging war drama. The film’s portrayal of soldiers struggling with the rightness of their actions and their purpose in the field is both timeless and timely, and the surrealistic zone of tunnels, bunkers, and sandbags that is Beaufort itself becomes a character in the story. While occasionally relying too heavily on cliches, Beaufort is ultimately a blistering antiwar film that is both fascinating and disturbing.
Beaufort is a movie that will make you feel like you’re lost in the desert with no water. But don’t worry, the director won’t hold your hand, so you’ll have to figure it out on your own. Just like the soldiers in the movie, you’ll feel stuck and confused, but at least you won’t be in danger of getting blown up. Overall, it’s a powerful antiwar film that will leave you feeling grateful for your own peaceful life.
Production Company(ies)
Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment,
Distributor
Kino International
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Troublemaker Studios – 4900 Old Manor Road, Austin, Texas, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for strong brutal stylized violence throughout, sexual content, nudity, and brief drug use
Year of Release
2014
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 5m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Jan 18, 2008 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 30, 2008
Genre(s)
Action/Drama
Keyword(s)
Worldwide gross: $39,407,616
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $49,249,559
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,342
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 5,370,726
US/Canada gross: $13,757,804
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $17,193,777
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,458
US/Canada opening weekend: $6,317,683
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $7,895,507
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,020
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $65,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $81,233,569
Production budget ranking: 515
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $43,744,277
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$75,728,288
ROI to date (est.): -61%
ROI ranking: 1,747
Eli Altonio – Oshry
Daniel Brook – Pavel
Oshri Cohen – Liraz
Gal Friedman – Balis
Ohad Knoller – Lieutenant Ziv Faran
Director(s)
Joseph Cedar
Writer(s)
Joseph Cedar
Producer(s)
David Mandil, Chilik Michaeli
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
4 wins & 6 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (53) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (8)
Joseph Cedar, the director, obviously decided not to hold the audience’s hand. This is good until you get lost; at which point you are less interested in the film and more interested in trying to feel for the hand that isn’t there.
August 23, 2018
Deborah Ross
The Spectator
TOP CRITIC
The soldiers feel stuck and so do we.
November 24, 2011 | Rating: 2/4
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
TOP CRITIC
Clearly something has gone MIA in moving from the small pictures into a cohesive big one.
September 1, 2008 | Rating: 2.5/4
Kamal Al-Solaylee
Globe and Mail
TOP CRITIC
As long as soldiers have gone into battle they have struggled with the rightness of their actions and their purpose in the field — no matter how firm their resolve at the outset.
August 22, 2008 | Rating: 3/4
Linda Barnard
Toronto Star
TOP CRITIC
[A] blistering antiwar film.
August 22, 2008
Andrea Gronvall
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
The camera never leaves the beleaguered compound, and Beaufort itself becomes a character in the story, a surrealistic zone of tunnels, bunkers and sandbags, about as far from the possibility of heroism as possible.
May 16, 2008
Stephen Hunter
Washington Post
TOP CRITIC
There is no preaching or pontificating here, just young men with a lifetime ahead of them, forced to wait in hell while their fates are decided for them by men in air conditions rooms.
July 6, 2019 | Rating: 3.5/4
Mattie Lucas
From the Front Row
Cedar overcomes the generic characters and formulaic “which innocent will die next in an ironic twist” plotting by his attention to detail.
August 23, 2012 | Rating: 3/5
Hank Sartin
Time Out Chicago
Powerful portrait of an officer and his soldiers facing up to what it means to serve in an army of a fallible, democratic country that spins an explosive pyrrhic victory
December 23, 2008 | Rating: 10/10
Nora Lee Mandel
Film-Forward.com
Engaging war drama that subtly mixes in several different genres to intriguing effect, though it occasionally relies too heavily on cliches.
October 18, 2008 | Rating: 3/5
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
It doesn’t come like a full-length, filmed history lesson at all. In fact, it’s a pretty fascinating, sometimes disturbing tale about the emotional and physical toll of combat.
October 18, 2008 | Rating: 3.5/4
Jeff Vice
Deseret News (Salt Lake City)
The film is slow and rather too long (and a bit preachy), but always intense, and its intentions are certainly clear.
August 22, 2008 | Rating: 2.5/5
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies…
Plot
Marv is unconscious on a highway surrounded by corpses. When he awakes, he has amnesia and tries to recall his last steps from the Kadie’s saloon on the Saturday night. He recalls that he found four playboys burning a homeless man alive and defended the poor man. Marv hunts them down and kills the group. The cocky gambler Johnny hits jackpot in slot machines in the Kadie’s saloon and invites the waitress Marcie to go with him to play poker game against the powerful Senator Roark. He wins the game and suffers the consequence of his arrogance. The private detective Dwight McCarthy is contacted by his former lover Ava Lord that asks to meet him at the Kadie’s saloon. Ava asks him for forgiveness for leaving him to marry the wealthy Damian Lord. However her strong chauffeur Manute takes her home. Dwight snoops around Ava’s house but is found and beaten by Manute and the bodyguards. When he returns home, Ava is waiting for him naked in the bed and seduces him again. Then she tells that Damian and Manute torture her and soon she will be killed. Once again Manute takes Ava with him and hits Dwight that invites Marv to help him to rescue Ava. Damian denies the accusation but Dwight beats him to death while Marv tear Manute’s eye out. But soon Dwight finds that he was lured by Ava that shoots him. Marv rescues Dwight and takes him to the Old Town where Dwight finds his former lover Gail that helps him to recover while Dwight plots revenge against Ava.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The film features Oshri Cohen as the young commander, Liraz.
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