Boys to men

>> Opération Cobra is a duplicitous docu-drama

by JASON BOGDANERIS

How real is reality TV? That’s one of the questions at the heart of Opération Cobra, an ambitious docu-fiction that tries to stay one step ahead of its audience. Is it a failed TV pilot, as the production notes claim? Or a documentary gone awry? Despite its best efforts at keeping the viewer guessing, however, the film doesn’t quite deliver.
At first we think we’re getting a straightforward documentary about teen boys in military school. This part feels totally unscripted as the young cadets self-consciously address the cameras, with commentary from their moms occasionally thrown in. It would have been interesting to delve deeper into what prompts these boys to give up video games and malls to be abused by a bellowing corporal but the film has another agenda. The filmmakers plan to use them as guinea pigs in a social experiment that feels like Lord of the Flies meets Survivor.

Divided into two teams of four, they face off in a game of paintball warfare in the woods. The kids are forced to rely on barely developed survivalist techniques and, facing the threat of a bear attack, there are some tense moments. But after a while watching grey and green uniformed kids against a wooded background gets a bit tedious. The battle fatigues and protective masks camouflage their personalities too and at this point the film starts to drag.
Then, as the climactic battle unfolds, the dynamic changes yet again. The boys attack each other with globs of paint, while the real enemy lurks offscreen. The directors, armed with their arsenal of cameras, are gradually drawn into the fray. That’s when the fun starts.
Unfortunately, by then any empathy we feel for the characters has been diluted by the many filters we’ve been watching them through. They have been presented in so many guises it’s hard to know which one to believe. Like the kids themselves, who are neither adults nor children, the film ends up floundering in a no-man’s land between gripping drama and documentary. :

Opération Cobra opens Friday, Feb. 1