MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: You don’t expect to see a clever critique of war, corporate life, Abu Gharib, male camaraderie, racism, feminine wiles and the good old child psychology that drives most human interaction in something that’s labelled a kid’s film. But I Declare War is not your typical children’s movie; it’s far too remarkable to be relegated to that pigeonhole.
Frequently amusing, frequently disturbing and ultimately truthful.
At first glance I Declare War resembles Stand By Me or Bugsy Malone, but it’s much more challenging than either of those. Ostensibly too light to be compared to Peter Brooks’ The Lord of the Flies, it has something of the mystic air of Massacre at Central High, but is enjoyably unafraid to give a wink to the audience from time to time. That levity, makes it seductive, but also softens audiences up for its sudden and merciless sharper moments. If ever a child should watch a war film I Declare War is it.
Ostensibly, it’s the story of two groups of young teens who play war games in the woods. Both 'armies" are headed by handsome, blue-eyed boys who are accustomed to being unchallenged leaders and getting their own way. With braces on his teeth, and a big Patton fan, PK (Gage Munroe) shows an encyclopaedic knowledge of war history, has won every war he’s ever played in and he has no intention of losing one now. PK’s most loyal soldier is Kwon (Siam Yu) who has faith in his leader’s every stratagem.
On the other side, 'General" Quinn (Aidan Gouvela) is not so lucky. Quinn has the admiration of a chess-loving girl, Jess (Mackenzie Munro) playing in her first war, but his military leadership is usurped by angry-young-man-in-the-making, Skinner (Michael Friend) who is driven by hidden demons to defeat PK.
The simple rules of engagement as it were, are outlined in an animated credit sequence: If you are shot, you must lie down until you count to ten. If you are killed, (ie hit with a balloon of red paint) you must go home. Put like that the film sounds silly, but writer/director Jason Lapeyre manages to pull all of this together in a way that is frequently amusing, frequently disturbing and ultimately truthful. Regular nods to Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and even Paths of Glory will please any film buff, but they fulfil more than intellectual name-dropping. These references also reinforce the idea that the audience’s familiarity with war movie clichés is dangerous as we unwittingly carry this mode of thinking into our everyday lives.
One of the film’s unspoken rules is that if the boys (and the one girl) believe it, then it’s true. When one 'soldier" finds a small log and decides it’s a bazooka, then it actually becomes a bazooka, because that’s what he wishes it to be. Accordingly, real guns, rather than toys or sticks suddenly appear as a way of illustrating the seriousness with which the lads approach their game. The film uses special effects to heighten the sense of an all-out war, but that’s not source of the movie’s power. Rather, this film’s strength comes direct from its potent ideas. How refreshing it is to see movie – particularly one that poses as a children’s film – that can make such a claim.
