Citizen Soldier Birds Eye View

Where other good war docs have done more of the storytelling retrospectively, the directors here bounce around in-the-moment POV angles to keep us in the action.

Through the incorporation of multiple strategically placed cameras, including helmet cams, the filmmakers, who achieved a similar, grunts-eye-view in 2014's "The Hornet's Nest," create an undeniably palpable experience.

The tension in "Citizen Soldier" is enough to make you gnaw through your fingernails.

For want of a better term, this gives you a "first-person shooter" look at actual war: It's Call of Duty with no cheats or respawns, and real-world consequences.

A promising but half-realized documentary whose relentlessly upbeat and on-message tone is more akin to a recruiting video.

It's well edited to create a film that tells the soldiers' story well, and for that, many small sins can be forgiven.

Very highly recommended.