The Old Guard Review
“We don’t have all the answers but we do have purpose… When we leave a footprint in the sand, in the snow, in the ether, you’re going to sweep it… and you’re gonna help us find those jobs that are best suited to us…”
In a mutant Avengers meet Nick Fury crossover crescendo, we see Andromache dole out what perhaps was her longest dialogue in The Old Guard — The mood is complemented with a soft rising theme song somewhere in the background and our 4 mutants are Andy (Andromache the Scythian), Joe, Nicky and new recruit Ms. Nile Freeman.
Nick Fury but without an eye-patch is ex-CIA agent James Copley played by Chinwetel Ejiofor.
Apart from the surprisingly lack of a characteristic movie yellow tint for underdeveloped countries — finally! — One of the very first things that assails the senses in The Old Guard is the unforgettable theme-perfect music. Aeons after the plot and action from our most memorable classics evaporate into nothingness, we never forget the sounds and music.
On this score, The Old Guard passes with flying colours and I daresay it is not premature to forecast that if everything else about it fades into insignificance, its’ music will play on, perhaps like our immortal mutant friends; forever.
As you may have surmised from the title of this piece, the movie is a tale of otherness above all else. It’s about ostracism, persecution and identity crisis within otherness. All these themes play simultaneously on a loop at different times in the movie without conflict. One very impressive thing is how the movie manages to narrate the experiences of different oppressed people at the same time as such a speedy pace without the movie collapsing.
We can choose to view the narrative through the prism of the otherness of anti-Semitic hate or choose to view it in the light of the Black experience of oppression and persecution; of homophobia and finally through the experiences of the oldest of all oppressed peoples; women. The Old Guard still manages to capture all these experiences of Otherness whilst driving an intriguing plot at breakneck speeds.
What The Old Guard also does so well at is something usually overlooked and taken for granted. It is without a doubt a protagonist story driven by no other than Charlize Theron packing her usual appeal of sensuality and dare-devilry with a not-so new character named Andy (Andromache the Scythian). Apart from the plot and some costume changes here and there, she could as well have been reprising her role as Furiosa from the Mad Max series.
She pushes the story forward with a palpable vengeance, showing more than telling which again draws similarities to Furiosa. Her repartee is full of short witticisms and jabs which invite more questions than answers and when the exasperated viewer is nearing the end of his/her wits, she’s more than eager to quell the storm of questions with her fists and guns.
Again, the impressive thing about The Old Guard in how it spins the protagonist tale is that despite our protagonists being the expendable ones, the plot is so well-delivered that from the beginning we are not rooting for the hapless soldiers in South Sudan who have been tricked into an unfortunate face-off with them. Rather, without resistance we allow ourselves be cornered into rooting for the mutants and what’s more, we enjoy it so thoroughly that when it happens again and again until the end of the film, we can’t stop applauding.
Another thing that might strike viewers is the storytelling depth in The Old Guard which is also well-backed with the accuracy of historical and scientific data. Action flicks tend to dwell too much on letting the action do the job of befuddling viewers when the plot begins to miss its mark. In The Old Guard, the action is merely a mechanism for fast-tracking the story-telling (most of the time). S/O to the writers Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez.
We see snippets of this historical/scientific attention to detail in Andy’s formidable double-edged battle axe which she uses to great effect in a couple of fight scenes; Joe’s Saif (scimitar) and Nick’s knight sword. In a way, it also speaks to their emotional attachments to times long buried under the dust of history.
Booker, the original fourth member of our mutant protagonists alongside Joe and Nick help do most of the story-telling. Through their eyes we revisit their past and present and through their reminiscences we are able to start solving the multiple jigsaw of questions Andy leaves in her wake as the story progresses.
They all possess supranormal regenerative healing abilities which loosely means they cannot die; elite level physical fitness; centuries upon centuries of combat experience (apart from Booker and Nile) and in Andy’s case sublime food-tasting skills.
In addition to the above, they also have what I have chosen to tag ‘Closed User Group Telepathy’ as we see when Nile gets her powers that they all have a tendency to share dreams before they meet.
Every good action flick with a likable protagonist needs an equally insane antagonist and this role is executed brilliantly by Harry Melling’s character Steven Merrick; a young but sadistic savant who runs an eponymous Pharmaceutical company. Merrick’s character is a cross between a Lex Luthor and Dr. Osborne wannabe whose justification for villainous acts is — you guessed it — the advancement of science and a fair few quid to boot.
By the way, staying true to character like the typical uber-rich villain we get to see that Merrick does his fair share of humanitarian service with a brief shot still at the infirmary in Nile’s camp. It also serves as a sort of foreshadowing effect on the dangers to come.
Personally, the highest point of the movie for me came with Joe’s romantic profession of love for Nick. The profound poetic and metaphorical underpinnings of that scene for me were so manifold that I haven’t stopped revisiting it mentally. To summarise, it was everything the movie was about rolled into a scene; otherness; persecution; identity; love; acceptance; defiance; resilience in captivity… There’s no way I could possibly exhaust all that was captured I’m afraid. One thing I am sure of though is that the word boyfriend has been redefined forever thanks to Joe.
Although, The Old Guard is by all accounts a terrific watch it does feature some of those befuddling moments typical of its genre. I specifically won’t refer to the first two as plot holes because it is evident that they were intended to move the plot along and by all standards; that is no sin.
The first is Andy’s Deus Ex Machina scene where she rescues Nile in Afghanistan which was expected but has to abduct her and drive off in a Humvee from a military camp — that was unexpected. We only get to see Andy driving off later with no inkling as to how she was able to pull it off. But then, on the merits of how good the movie is we can look the other way this once.
The other instance where the plot begs us to just let go is Nile’s daredevil descent with Merrick. Splendid work on that scene by Barry Ackroyd and Tami Reiker with the way the shot takes the viewer on the ride as well. The problem wasn’t the dive which was excellent, it was the empty streets that met it one second and the full streets we got to see some seconds later — in full daylight. Of course, friendly neighbourhood cops also show up after that.
Here again, the viewers can let things slide particularly because our minds are still reeling from that deep madcap dive Nile took us on against our will.
The last one is harder to ignore even though it was evidently a plot device to explore Nile’s story arc and move the story forward. Why would Andy keep Nile’s phone after abducting her from a military camp? Earlier on, we had seen how Andy deleted photos from the phone of a tourist group who inadvertently captured her profile in a selfie.
Later on, we also see how she disposes of a phone she calls Booker on to confirm Nile’s acquisition. While Nile’s phone turns out to be pivotal to her story in the movie, it presents a huge challenge to the integrity of Andy’s decision-making and a gaping plot-hole. How could a marine go AWOL so easily especially with witnesses who saw the would-be abductor? And then Andy leaves her phone on as they go from hideout to hideout?
Some more intriguing and challenging questions the movie raises include;
What is the full range of their regenerative abilities?
Could they grow a limb with bone tissue back if it was excised?
How differently does it affect the women; can they reproduce?
What special relationship did Quynh have with Lykon? Will she blame Andy for his death in a sequel? Or just for giving up on her?
What did Nile mean when she told Andy “well, wait until tomorrow” just before their encounter with Merrick?
Is Andy going to make it especially after she tells Booker to have a little faith?
While we await answers to the above, suffice to say that also among The Old Guard’s appeal is the weaving together of complementary and contrasting themes without rendering a chaotic end product. We get to see Andy’s atheism go head to head with Nile’s godly devotion; an Arab jihadist in love with an Italian Catholic Knight; a revolutionary who gave his life to resist oppression in one life but ends up surrendering to it in another. Interestingly, we also get to experience what it means to be an Other and the internal struggle of denial and acceptance within that community. Sublime work by director Gina Prince-Bythewood and the crew.
Invariably, if there’s any lesson at all that The Old Guard teaches, it is that our best intentions can end up being the most evil thing and that no sin, including betrayal is unforgivable.
P.S — something so subtle it almost escaped me is the metaphorical nous behind naming Kiki Layne’s character Nile Freeman. I still think about this…
