The Kill Team

By: Ashlee Dell’Arciprete

In 2010, a shocking story of American soldiers committing war crimes in Afghanistan, known as the “Maywand District Murders,” made headlines for its sickening subject material and the harsh reality of the true story. Director and writer Dan Krauss then created a chilling documentary, titled The Kill Team, on the story that exposed the hostilities of soldiers at war and what would lead them to commit war crimes. Krauss decided to revisit his documentary by turning it into a narrative feature of the same name.

The original 2013 documentary detailed a 21-year-old soldier, Private Adam Winfield, who was a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan that confided in his father to try and alert the military to the crimes that the other soldiers in his platoon were committing. This was a decision he was pressured into doing and yet Winfield’s calls to the military went unnoticed. The documentary follows Winfield and his family through the events that occurred and litigation that followed along with interviews with members of the platoon Winfield was in. The documentary premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and won The Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature.

Dan Krauss’ narrative feature film of the same name is a dramatized version of the events that happened in Afghanistan. The 2019 feature, The Kill Team is a stark representation of the psychology behind when young men are given power and a gun and a powerful one at that. As their names were changed, the fictionalized feature centers on Adam, now Andrew Briggman (Nat Wolff), who is a United States soldier sent to Afghanistan. The commanding officer of his platoon gets killed by a landmine that went off right in front of him, which that alone would be traumatizing enough. The replacement commanding officer, Sergeant Deeks (Alexander Skarsgård), quickly changes the dynamic of the platoon. Deeks is mostly concerned with killing and killing innocent Afghan civilians, a behavior he thinks is normal. Throughout the course of the film Deeks becomes increasingly manipulative of his soldiers in killing innocent locals and planting evidence to cover it up and subsequently then celebrating their kills with cookouts. Oddly, Skarsgård seems to creepily be made for this role.

Struggling with going along with what is happening; however, is Briggman. He messages his father (Rob Morrow) on Facebook to confide in him and ask for advice as to whether he should do the right thing or put everyone in danger. The fear he has for Deeks or the other soldiers thinking he’s a snitch puts him into paranoia as he goes through his own internal struggle. Eventually, the film culminates with a heart-wrenching decision that Briggman feels he is forced into making. There is a long lead-up of will he or won’t he do it and the cinematography of the scene reflects that.

The supporting cast, including Adam Long, Jonathan Whitesell and Brian “Sene” Marc, who portray the other soldiers of Briggman’s platoon help to create a believable ensemble. Nat Wolff and Alexander Skarsgård deliver exceptionally with Wolff as the soldier who wants to stop the situation going on and Skarsgård, as the sadistic sociopathic Staff Sergeant. However, director and screenwriter Dan Krauss does not paint Andrew as completely innocent either, which makes The Kill Team more dynamic.

The film could have gone deeper into the internal moral struggle of the soldiers given the gory acts the soldiers make, but nonetheless the film showed what can happen when people are given too much power and toss morals and ethics out. Krauss’ direction and script shows that war is complicated from both sides and a troubling moral battle. Krauss choose a strong cast with impressionable and pliable attitudes that creates a standalone film. The Kill Team is a harrowing feature that succeeds at scraping the surface on the mindset of the soldiers involved and choices that led to the outcome of the crimes depicted in the film.

View Our Coverage of “The Kill Team” Tribeca Film Festival Red Carpet