Good Morning Afghanistan

The troops might still be out there, Osama might still be insisting on sending out dodgy messages now and then and the war on terror is certainly not over, but that doesn't mean Hollywood will turn down a good Afghanistan film when they see it. In what might very well be the first post-September 11 war film to be chucked into development, Columbia Pictures have picked up an as yet untitled project revolving around the real-life U.S. storming of the northern Afghanistan city of Mazar E Sharif. And why would any self-respecting movie buff want to see such action when it has so recently – and terrifyingly – been on our own TV screens? Well, this is one Special Forces attack with a difference. When the United States sent several 12-man Special Forces Alpha Teams to liaise with the Northern Alliance forces after 11 September last year, one team was given strict instructions to capture the city of Mazar E Sharif within six months. Not only did they fulfil their mission in two weeks, but – the clever soldiers they were – did so on horseback. Having to ditch their customary jeeps and tanks due to the location and terrain of the city, the soldiers had to resort to cavalry tactics using only their communication gear and weapons combined with a horse or two. It'll be stirring stuff, we're sure – although how realistic a depiction of what actually went on last winter will, we imagine, remain doubtful. A gap of nine years from the real events was needed to make the refreshingly cynical Three Kings about the Gulf War, and even the hugely biased Black Hawk Down was made eight years after the film's actual events in Somalia. Another Apocalypse Now? A second The Green Berets more like.