Guy Ritchie’s “The Covenant” is one of those almost classic American action war films that traverses all the conventional routes of cinematically capturing the action, emotion, and drama of a wartime conflict while also giving an entirely new experience to the viewer.

Frankly, I only ventured towards this movie because I was in my American war films era. And because there was something so entirely captivating about bulky American guys in army uniforms. And though Jake Gyllenhaal’s portrayal of John Kinley was aptly satisfying, Dar Salim’s portrayal of Ahmad completely stole the spotlight.

What’s more is that Dar Salim’s portrayal is so entirely commendable that it shifted the viewer’s perception of this kind of war cinema. This wasn’t a movie about the blue-eyed blond and bulky American army men, fighting the terrorists in shalwar kameez. This wasn’t just another American Feature where cool action scenes were choreographed in the dusty, hilly landscapes, where dirt flew and rocks tumbled and it all looked so cinematically appealing during a gun brawl.

This was a movie about the bond between an American army soldier and the guy in a Shalwar Kameez (overly simplified for dramatic effect, but like… it works, right?). Neither was this the big Tom-Cruise-overly-Patriotic-Type thing. This film was wonderfully subtle because it just focused on the bond of service between two people. The understanding that a debt was owed and needs to be paid, no matter what the hurdles are.

Spoiler Alert

We see Jon Kinley almost break down and thrash his head to the ground, at what seems like his lowest point, when he, as a Captain, loses his entire unit to an ambush. That scene shows us the atrocities of war. It shows us how, in a matter of minutes, so many lives can be lost to a baseless conflict. It shows what appears to the viewer as the lowest point in Captain Jon Kinley’s life. After all he just lost his entire team of men that he was leading. Six men’s lives he was responsible for.

That’s when we see the other side of war. When Kinley gets injured in a clash with the Taliban, Ahmad does not abandon him. Rather, he takes it upon himself to transport Kinley and himself safely back to the military base.

The scenes that follow are the beautiful depiction of bare and true humanity. It is the same landscape. But only now a man is pulling the weight of another man with all his strength through the same rocky paths, through the same hilly terrain, aided only by the primeval sense of brotherhood.

And when we see Jon Kinley safely back in his plush and lavish residence, where there isn’t a speck of dirt on the white tiles, where he has his beautiful wife and children, we see it is now that Jon Kinley is at his lowest. He is healthy, his hair is gelled back, and he is well-put together. But there is no longer that calm in his chest, the vigor in his eyes, the happiness in his cheeks. Because only he knows the magnitude of debt he is under.

It is from here that we get these signature lines:

That is not how this debt works. It demands a result, not an appeasement.

And when Jon Kinley manages to pay this debt, we do not get the big adrenaline-and testosterone-induced brotherly hug ending that gives us the big payoff for the relationship between these two. Rather we end the movie on these two men sitting across from each other, the debt paid, and a mutual nod of appreciation and respect passed between both of them.

This is how this movie remains respectful to the grounds on which it stands. Ahmad and Kinley were never friends; they were partners at most, thrust into a conflict. The brotherly bond they forged was purely out of the selfless choices and sacrifices each one of them made for the other.

From my viewpoint, I’ll say it is a very good watch.

I hope upon you freedom from conflict in the present and brotherly bonds in the future.