I like it.
It’s not great, but you already knew that, and that’s okay, no one starts out great and few ever become it.
What is noteworthy is the potential.
You are clearly trying to achieve or recreate something sophisticated, mature and cinematic, but it looks like at the moment it’s simply beyond your immediate technical reach or full understanding, and that too is okay, it doesn’t happen overnight.
I think you should investigate examples of how the drama of a card game (and even a Western showdown) is visually depicted, and write down the sequence of events and shots that you see.
Right now it looks like just filming people playing cards, but not showing the story of the card game, and the story of the game isn’t anything hard or anything you aren’t already doing. It’s shots of the cards and showing who has which cards, it’s the reaction shots of the players, the eyes, the hands, the feet, the wide shots, but just arranged into a visual story that depicts the drama of who will win and who will lose, and how. Also take note of how betting in a card game raises the literal and dramatic stakes.
Some of that internal visual story will add another dimension that strengthens or provides contrast or overall subtext or meaning to the war footage.
I have seen tons of better videos, but I have also seen tons of technically proficient film makers that appear to never have heeded the call of breaking through the boundaries of what they can’t or don’t yet know how to do, but are still willing to try it on instinct, because it's cool.
It’s obvious you have a long way to go (everyone does), but I think some important steps are shining through here and it’s not hard to sense what you are trying to convey.
Judging by your writing and now this, I can only hope the day comes soon when YOU decide to put down the Tarantino action figure and pick up the Conor JC one, because only you can make that choice, and no matter how much or who your influences are, you are you when you hit that record button.
-Thanks-
