Beast of No Nation - A Movie Analysis

Beast of No Nation follows a boy’s journey as a child soldier as he slowly loses his childhood innocence to the horrors of war throughout the movie. An almost accurate representation of war is duplicated and the actors brought a sense of realness - making me feel at certain points that it’s a documentary instead of a film. Abraham Attah is incredibly captivating in his role as Agu, I can feel his character’s struggle throughout the film.

The narrative technique emphasizes the moments when Agu’s emotions are at their peak; this technique provides his thoughts on how his personality changes, and the memories of his joyous past when he was still innocent. At the beginning of the movie, Agu in his narration said “It is starting like this” two times which indicates different circumstances. The first time was when they were playing with the imagination tv; an important prop that symbolizes Agu’s childhood and innocence. Agu talks about their life, possibly his future career as a director, and Dike as the actor. The second one represents the beginning of his upcoming misery and changes in Agu as he is forced to undergo the horrors of war. Agu’s narration also incorporates his personality in how he displays his thoughts because he has an incredibly innocent view of the world before his childhood was brutally shattered. Agu’s old days are filled with complications of selling things, peeing on his brother, and poking his grandpa’s nose. After the war, his mind became torn between revulsion and fascination with war and death.

Another important prop is the commandant’s telescope which represents a barrier between the enemy and the soldiers. As the commandant and Agu look into the telescope, the enemies' figures look smaller which emphasizes superiority in comparison to the soldiers.

Cary Fuji Fukunaga - director - is known for his use of long take technique in his works. Long take shots enhance the action sequences as we as the audience are brought along to witness the character’s acts without interruptions, creating a sensation that we are experiencing the situation together with the characters. The movie uses the widescreen scope to exhibit cinematic performance and a high-grain approach to the screen in order to create a vintage ambiance to resemble the way a camera screen would look in that era of war. He uses panavision anamorphic lenses on a digital camera to present the film.

The commandant's existence is central to push the child soldiers further into the madness of war as he manipulates the boys into thinking that it’s for a glorious purpose to be able to contribute to war. The boys respect the commandant, which in turn influences the boys to be like the commandant. Their perspective of war shifts into justification for horrific violence of murders, rapes, and torturers than permission.

Differences in their rank can be seen from the scene where Agu and the commandant first encounter each other. The camera uses the Medium Close Up (MCU) shot of Agu’s head looking up at the commandant while the commandant’s leg is shown at the left side of the frame; presenting how beneath Agu is compared to the commandant. In comparison to their meeting which uses the Full Shot (FS), showing the commandant’s body as the camera moves further away along with Agu and the other soldiers. As Agu escapes from the soldiers with his brother, whip pan shot is used to show how Agu’s life from that point onward will be 180* and it will never be the same again, ever. In the scene where the soldiers visit a brothel, Agu’s perspective of women has changed. He no longer views them innocently. Previously, he doesn’t even know that sleeping together means an act of sexual activity between man and woman when his older brother mentions his desire to sleep with a woman. The use of Extreme Close up (ECU) of Agu’s expression as he’s looking at the girl’s thigh suggests his desire of lust for the girl, a crack in his wall of childhood.

At a few moments in the story, Agu’s world becomes quiet as the background noises disappear and his narration begins. He talks about his past when his family was still with him and his way of living before. The disappearance of sounds creates an ambiance of his contemplated feelings - thoughts of his morals, God, and his future. Another scene where the background noises are jumbled up with the commandant’s speech and a soldier’s voice is when Agu is affected by a hallucinogen drug. This scene uses Extreme Close Up (ECU), focusing on Agu’s unfocused eye to show the effect of drugs on his body.

The war has brought changes into the lives of the people living in Africa; not only Agu but his family too. His father used to work as a teacher, but he became jobless with the incoming war. Agu’s brother also has a whole future in front of him in regard to adulthood and love. All of this was ruined by their death that doesn’t even make sense because they did nothing wrong. Agu’s last symbol of childhood was Strika. With Strika’s death, Agu’s last ounce of childhood disappears. Strika was Agu’s closest person who supported him in times of trouble and knew Agu before his innocence began to deteriorate.

His conversation with Amy, who is clearly older than Agu shows how Agu’s mind has fallen to the point where he thinks of him as more mature than her. He thinks of himself as the “beast” and the “devil” and more experienced as he has seen more to life than Amy. The deterioration of his mind can be illustrated by the fisheye-looking filter in the scene of the conversation. The edges of the screen are darker with a clear circle formed in the middle.

In conclusion, Cary Fuji Fukunaga has certainly outdone himself with this film and it is no wonder that he won acclaim and rewards for his works. I’d definitely watch another movie of his in the future.