Story highlights Brad Pitt stars as a US general in Afghanistan in the Netflix movie out May 26

The film is based on the book "The Operators" by Michael Hastings

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Washington (CNN) "War Machine," a movie about a fictional US general's efforts to end the war in Afghanistan starring Brad Pitt and based on a book by one of my all-time favorite journalists and authors, the late Michael Hastings, about real-life US Gen. Stanley McChrystal, debuts Friday on Netflix.

I spoke to the director, David Michôd, who called it "part dark goofball comedy." Pitt plays Gen. Glen McMahon, who comes to Afghanistan to do what no one else has been able to do -- end the war -- but faces roadblocks in the form of politics and military bureaucracy. Taking place during the height of Gagamania in the US, the would-be rockstar general is interviewed for a Rolling Stone profile, and if you're unfamiliar with how the real-life Rolling Stone profile turned out , you'll have to watch to find out (spoiler alert: Gaga made the cover that month, not the general, but the issue will always be remembered for his profile).

Michôd said the style of this and similar films are "a kind of sharp form of criticism of the ways in which wars are fought" and that he finds it "deeply unsettling" that we barely talk about the war in Afghanistan any more.

"I think the fact that we have become as a society so divorced from what our military is doing that we can send our young men and women into harm's way without it being newsworthy on a daily basis is unsettling and I think it's unhealthy for a society," he said.

I asked him his thoughts on the decision President Donald Trump faces on sending more troops to Afghanistan since making the film, and he said, "I can't believe that coming up to 16 years in, we're contemplating a surge of this nature."

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