War Film 'Triage' Excels With Strong Colin Farrell Performance

With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 just passing, I have been giving given some thought to my favorite post-9/11 movies.  Not only did these films come out AFTER September 11, 2001, but they all have ties to the post-2001 mindset.  Over the past several weeks, I have focused on films made in response to the new world we live in and have lived in for ten years.  No, they do not all have to do with 9/11 directly, but the subjects and themes take on a darker, more sinister, and sadly more realistic tone in this new era of war and terror.  Just as film noir was a direct response to films made during and after World War II, these films convey all of our fears, worry and anger. 

Whoever said “war is hell” was sure on target.  And that saying applies not only to the frontlines but also the home front.  What these men and women see during war makes it impossible to forget and move on to lead normal, fulfilling lives once they arrive back home.  In Triage, Colin Farrell does not play a soldier…rather a frontline photojournalist who is known for capturing some of the most gritty war footage out there.  He seems to thrive on the blood and the gore, at first.  Nothing seems to faze him.  Or does it?  In Kurdistan, where he is covering the latest hotspot of violence, he is injured…in circumstances we do not see.  He seems relatively well, physically, but after he comes home, something is wrong…both physically and emotionally.  This is a man who had witnessed bodies getting torn apart, piles of corpses waiting to get disposed of, disgusting hospital conditions (even calling it a hospital is a sick joke) and a doctor who marks the “untreatable” soldiers and takes them out and shoots them to end their suffering.  So, what makes anything worse than the everyday norm?  We later find out that there was something that happened that involved someone he cares about a great deal.  And he blocked it out of his mind, as an emotional safety net.   Can we blame him?   Colin Farrell here is top-notch…some of his best work ever.  Trying to convey bottled up emotions can be harder to portray than behaving like an emotional mess and Farrell does the job well.  Not for the faint of heart, but this one is a must-see for anyone who likes powerful, riveting dramas. 

Triage: 2009, rated R, 99 minutes. Directed by Danis Tanovic. Starring Colin Farrell, Paz Vega, Jamie Sives, Kelly Reilly, and Christopher Lee.  The Niles Public Library District owns copies of this film on DVD.