One of the things that film writers can do is to add something on a familiar concept, but the trick is to not make those additions result in a convoluted film. Do Not Hesitate succeeds on this challenge for the most part. The challenge, by the way, involves making a Godot movie with a twist. It’s also educational in that viewers learn or remember that the Netherlands is in the Forever War. In this specific film, three young Dutch male soldiers have to transport $1.5M work of military equipment across an Arabic country. They get a flat tire. They also inadvertently kill a goat, causing the ire of the child who owns the goat. The film, then, captures the obvious yet true phenomena that comes with maintaining an empire. Specifically, that the postmodern benevolence that empires have today makes no sense to the people who want to kick invaders out.

Countries have different acting styles. Or at least, these countries have perceptions of that acting styles come out of their countries. A few people in other aggregate review sites have expressed their ambivalence about the brashness of the acting here but then again brashness is what viewers get when they watch a movie about frat boy jarheads. My major note against this is that movies about wars will always face problems. Specifically, that someone will always pick a war movie apart depending on who that movie chooses as a protagonist. Do Not Hesitate stays above water simply because of how it lets its plot unfold. Things can unfold on a dime. The film lets you feel the consequences of each character’s actions, and that those consequences don’t appear unless it’s too late. It also shows us that there’s no good that comes out of swimming with hot, young Marines.