Brad Pitt Cranks Up The War Machine In First Full Trailer For Timely Netflix Drama

It’s been dubbed “a war story for our times,” and ahead of its worldwide premiere on May 26th, Netflix has deployed the first full trailer for War Machine starring Brad Pitt as a four-star U.S. General bound for crisis.

Directed by David Michôd, the latest original feature from Netflix toes the line between hard-hitting drama and biting satire, and up above we get a glimpse of the dramatic rise and equally dramatic fall of Pitt’s overconfident General Glenn McMahon. Lifting inspiration from Michael Hastings’ non-fiction novel, The Operators: The Wild & Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan, War Machine is a star-studded portrayal of life in the Middle East told through an American lens, and it isn’t long before Brad Pitt’s protagonist begins to realize that commanding NATO forces during wartime isn’t the easy ride he believed it to be.

Per Netflix:

In a film for our times, writer-director David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) recreates a U.S. General’s roller-coaster rise and fall as part reality, part savage parody – raising the specter of just where the line between them lies today.  His is an anti-establishment, pro-soldier exploration in the form of an absurdist war story of a born leader’s ultra-confident march right into the dark heart of folly.  At the story’s core is Brad Pitt’s sly take on a successful, charismatic four-star general who leapt in like a rock star to command NATO forces in Afghanistan, only to be taken down by his own hubris and a journalist’s no-holds-barred expose. War Machine addresses the debt we owe to soldiers to question the purposes to which they are being directed.

Brad Pitt’s pompous General may be the driving force fuelling Netflix’s War Machine, but the online streamer has recruited a truly star-studded ensemble cast, one which includes Doctor Strange‘s Tilda Swinton, Sir Ben Kingsley, Anthony Michael Hall, Topher Grace, Will Poulter, Lakeith Stanfield, Emory Cohen, John Magaro, RJ Cyler, Alan Ruck, Batman V Superman‘s Scoot McNairy and Meg Tilly.

Netflix has slated War Machine to premiere on May 26th. It’s one of many modern-day war movies ready to deploy, too, what with Mine, Man Down and Doug Liman’s nail-biting thriller The Wall all cramming up the pipeline.