Movie Review: Jim Caviezel’s 'Ghost Soldier' Hero Smashes Corporate Greed and the Critics Hate It

My wife and I celebrated Veterans Day by taking in a movie. We chose Ghost Soldier, starring Jim Caviezel.

As the late Andrew Breitbart said, “Politics is downstream of culture.” If we cede the cultural battlefield to the Left, we can’t hope to win the political battles. If the Left controls entertainment, education, academia, publishing, the arts, etc., then they control the political agenda and the best we can do is fight a rearguard action. I support movies that don’t make founding American first principles like patriotism and Christianity into jokes, and they don’t have the plot-independent, de rigueur soft-core porn scenes that get jammed into most other films.

Ghost Soldier is a stripped-down, unapologetic 90-minute action film that turns what could have been a First Blood-esque tale about a damaged war vet into a political parable about what happens when, in the words of Caviezel’s character, the rule of law becomes divided between those who have enough money that they can safely ignore the law and those who don’t.

Directed by William Eubank and starring Jim Caviezel as former Green Beret Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) weapons designer Henry “Fitz” Fitzgerald, it follows a reclusive, and by reclusive I mean a man so far off the grid that he doesn’t appear on property tax rolls, Wyoming resident who opposes a corporation seizing local ranch land for the water rights. Released on Veterans Day, the movie frames one man as rural America's last defense against organized corporate greed, using the ongoing debate over AI data centers as the plot device.

The main antagonist is a Bahrain-based megacorporation called Brownstone, not that far removed from BlackRock, which buys up water rights in real life, along with its minions. The corporation isn't merely greedy; it employs mercenaries and corrupt local officials to force holdouts off their property and, in the phrase popularized in Cool Hand Luke, help them "get their mind right." 

In a way, this is a refreshing change from the usual rogue corporation out for world conquest. Black…I mean, Brownstone is just in it for the dollar.

Caviezel plays Fitz with the stoic intensity that has defined his work since he played Private Robert E. Lee Witt in Thin Red Line. His character is like the John Reese character in Person of Interest, and I would argue that it owes a lot to the Clint Eastwood “Man Without a Name” characters in Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter. He has a talented supporting cast, but the script's deficiencies limit their impact, and they wilt under Caviezel’s stage presence.

Olivia Thirlby is the spunky deputy sheriff who allies with Fitz after being marginalized for being too honest. Thankfully, she never becomes the hectoring girlboss who tosses 250-pound men around; a character that has become a favorite in Hollywood; see The Reason Behind Everyone's Problem With the Girlboss Trope – RedState. Garret Dillahunt does a lot with his role as a corporate security chief who does a lot of bad things but acts like his heart is in it. It’s a job, and it pays the bills. For my money, the best supporting role was the Serbian mercenary leader, played to the hilt by Beau Knapp. He made you feel like when he wasn’t brutalizing citizens, he chilled out by pulling the wings off flies.

Fitz’s DARPA connection is critical, as it brings inventive high-tech weapons like camouflage systems, guided munitions, and other prototypes that improve Fitz's odds without seeming like a deus ex machina.

The film's political themes are its clearest elements. Fitz is explicitly Christian and patriotic, offering prayers before combat and delivering lines that equate corporate power with tyranny. In an interview, Caviezel said this came from talking with the former special forces operators who advised on the set. Most of them had a St. Michael’s medal or tattoo regardless of their religion or lack thereof. The St. Michael’s Prayer is recited, in part, in a couple of scenes, and Fitz prepares to go to battle.

St. Michael the Archangel,
 defend us in battle.
 Be our defense against the wickedness
 and snares of the Devil.
 May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
 and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
 by the power of God,
 thrust into hell Satan,
 and all the evil spirits,
 who prowl about the world
 seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

Ghost Soldier hasn’t been a big hit with the movie-review mafia. Variety called it an “uninspired, retrograde actioner” while RogerEbert.com criticized the “odious politics.” That said, the entire movie has a “ripped from the headlines” quality. The cultural war we are fighting now is with forces who are attempting to crush individual and religious freedom and give us the “safety” of animals kept in a cage. Major corporations are buying up American farmland, and with it the water and mineral rights. Saudi Arabia is raising alfalfa on a fragile Arizona aquifer to export back to the Middle East. Chinese companies are buying farmland.

In an interview, Caviezel says this might be the beginning of a franchise in the mode of Jack Reacher. I hope so.

This movie doesn’t require much deep thinking. It is a good, old-fashioned action movie where good faces off against evil and a lone hero protects a cowed populace from the powerful. Jim Caviezel carried the movie, and your attendance helps Angel Studios make movies that won’t offend you or embarrass you if you take your kids.

I watched it on half-price beer night, which made it even more enjoyable.

Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.

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