There are a load of films coming out about Iraq. My Country, My Country and The Ground Truth opened here today. War Tapes is traveling around (I see it next week). Got email from Sojourners today encouraging people to buy a dvd and host showing in homes, churches, community centers the week of 10/4-11 (marking 4 years since Congress authorized use of force). If interested in the dvd and hosting an event, go to http://groundtruthstore.seenon.com/?pa=sojourners

just a note to say that MyCountry, My Country will be shown on PBS this month as part of POV. At least it will be on KCET in LA on 10/25 (Replay 10/29). Check your local affiliate.

The latest doc - No End in Sight - opens this Friday in NY and DC, next week in LA and the next in Chicago. Took part this afternoon in roundtable with the director. Very compelling look at why things have gone so wrong in Iraq.

Thanks for bumping this thread, which is broader than just the few films mentioned.

I've watched "Control Room" and "Why We Fight" in recent weeks, but these doc's don't generate much discussion here. We did have a lively thread on "Fahrenheit 9/11"; that strikes me as unfortunate, because that film is nowhere near as compelling as "Control Room," or, to a lesser extent, "Why We Fight." I wasn't as much a fan of the "Fight" but thought it still worthwhile.

I think I might check out "Road to Guantanamo."

I can't say these films present the case for opposition to the war in ways that have deeply shifted my own thinking, but I do think the films are important and worth seeing. I wish we had a little more discussion about these films here, even as I acknowledge that, until recently, I wasn't very interested in joining the fray.

Iraq in Fragments deserves a look.

Yes. I almost saw that one at FilmFest DC last year, but the timing/logistics didn't work out. I'll look for it.

I still haven't seen Ground Truth or Fragments. (The latter is making its way up my Netflix queue.)

My favorite of the Iraq War films I've seen is War Tapes, even if it is US-centric.

This topic has been moved to the better-suited "Film Awards, Festivals, and Lists" forum...

The last two days I watched a pair of diametrically opposed films: The Ground Truth which is filled with Iraq War vets who are against the war, and Voices of Iraq which is filled with pro-American Iraqis. I'd love to follow the money trail on these, especially the latter.

I'm working on an overview of the Iraq War docs. So far the ones I've seen are

• The Ground Truth
• My Country, My Country
• No End in Sight
• The War Tapes
• Control Room
• Voices of Iraq
• Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

I have Iraq in Fragments and Occupation: Dreamland coming soon.

I'm leaving out F911 and Road to Guantanmo because they really aren't centered on the Iraq War (although they certainly have some overlap).

Have you seen any others I need to include?

(Watching many of these close together is not helping my attitude toward the Administration.)

And I picked up Gunner Palace today. I'm staking claim to Iraq War doc expert. I'll probably also need prozac by the time I'm done.

Can't believe I forgot to add that one to your list. I've seen it! (I didn't find it persuasive or enlightening, but others have.)

My overview article is finished!

Comments welcome (here or at the HJ site).

As to Gunner Palace, I think Operation: Dreamland was a much better attempt at what they wanted to do in that film.

Just saw No End in Sight.

Pheww. The power of this film lies in the combination of high-ranking officials who testify in candid interviews, and in the juxtaposition of statements made by the White House about the progress in Iraq at times when jarringly contradictory statements are made by the very people sent over to bring about positive change in Iraq.

The overwhelming effect of the film is that viewer is not only convinced but appalled and sickened by the state of denial at the highest level.

Now, of course, this is nothing new. But it is powerfully and efficiently edited into a film that, to its credit, never gets hysterical or loses its cool. There's no Michael Moore manipulation evident here. It's pretty much straightforward in its reports and testimonies, saying, "Here's what you were told on this day. And here is what we were seeing and experiencing, quite to the contrary, on that same day."

One of the most worthwhile visits to the theater I've had this year. I encourage everyone to see it.

link to the thread on No End in Sight. (OK, only one post, but still, it's there.)

Someone from the Disciples email listserv says there is a doc floating around to limited screenings that is photography and interviews with Iraqis resisting the occupation.

Meeting Resistance

screening schedule

War films crash and burn in Toronto
During the Vietnam War, the only Hollywood picture to directly broach the subject for many years was John Wayne's "The Green Berets." Unlike that era, important directors have been rushing to get their Iraq projects made and released in a timely way.
But based on what I've seen so far, particularly at the Toronto Film Festival, I'm in no rush to see the rest of the Iraq-centered fiction films (as opposed to documentaries) Hollywood will be serving up in the coming months, simply because I think I know exactly where they're coming from and that I'm not going to learn anything new from them. . . .
No matter the specific qualities of the writing, filmmaking and performances; the problem for me is that all these films emanate from precisely the same mindset, the safest, least provocative attitude it is possible to have: the war sucks, Bush sucks, America is down the tubes.
Does anyone in Hollywood think anything different than this? According to polls, more than 60% of Americans also agree.
Just as, during World War II, Hollywood pictures had a unified aim, to rally viewers around the war effort and present an image of the Allies prevailing, today they are also identical in nature, except in the opposite direction. . . .
When someone like Richard Gere spouts off about Bush at the Venice Film Festival, as he just did, how much more tired can you get? Being anti-Bush simply isn't enough, as this point; there's an election coming up, a future to decide, complex issues to sort out, and Bush won't be part of the equation.
Where current events are concerned, documentaries are far better equipped to tackle them than are fictional features. The film of the year for me in many ways is "No End in Sight," a profoundly analytical, meticulously methodical and rewardingly specific study of where the U.S. went wrong once it achieved military victory in Iraq; it was the film I'd long been waiting for after the emotional hysteria of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and its ilk.
In the fictional arena, I would welcome the contemporary equivalent of something like the late John Frankenheimer's Vietnam-related "Path to War," a revelatory dramatization of how and why the war happened, or a (probably non-Hollywood) look at what was going on inside Saddam Hussein's Iraq just prior to and during the invasion.
But yet another knee-jerk condemnation of Bush, wayward soldiers and misguided policy, such as exported torture (as in another underwhelming new film, "Rendition")? I've been hearing all that for years and I'd rather spend my time learning and experiencing something new and forward-looking, as well as analyzing the ever-changing political map of the Middle East, not stewing in the juices of stale vitriol.
Now that the vast majority of Americans have misgivings, at the very least, about the Iraq adventure, producers are betting that mainstream audiences may be ready, up to a point, for the homefront stories of mangled, maimed and disturbed vets and their families. But the overt polemics of most of the Iraq films thus far, such as those expressed so predictably at the end of "In the Valley of Elah," seem calculated to once again stir up the Cindy Sheehan crowd, to preach to the converted of four years ago. Move on, indeed. . . .
Todd McCarthy, Variety, September 14

Michael J. Totten on Iraq in Fragments at Commentary.

Phil Donahue has a film at Palm Springs festival that I plan on taking in - Body of War. I have no expectation of balance.

Body of War as I expecterd above. Not to say it's not well done in the indictment mode. But It is also very good at showing us the life of one soldier's battle. They are hoping to have it in theaters in April.

This thread has been about documentaries so far, mainly, but I can't think of any better place to put this, so...

The folks at Libertas have been crowing lately over the fact that Vantage Point -- which they themselves do not think is a particularly good film -- has been doing pretty good business the last few weeks. (Indeed, it is PRECISELY because the film isn't very good that they find its box-office success noteworthy.) Why are they crowing? Because they consider the film pro-American, etc., unlike certain other recent films about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (assuming one sees them as two separate conflicts and not as two fronts in a larger single war), which they consider anti-American, etc.

So I got curious, and here's what BoxOfficeMojo.com has to say, in chronological order:

• In the Valley of Elah -- $6.8mil domestic + $18.8mil overseas = $25.5 million worldwide
• The Kingdom -- $47.5mil + $38.8mil = $86.3mil
• Rendition -- $9.7mil + $14.9mil = $24.6mil
• Lions for Lambs -- $15mil + $42mil = $57mil
• Redacted -- $65,388 + $0.6mil = $0.7mil

People have noted before that The Kingdom made more than all those other films combined, at least domestically -- and this, too, was credited to The Kingdom being relatively non-partisan, at least until the final moments invoked a bit of the ol' moral equivalence.

And now? Vantage Point, as of Friday, has $62.8mil + $40mil = $102.8mil. So it has easily outgrossed the others individually, and if it makes it to $80 million domestic it will have outgrossed them all COMBINED, domestically. Overseas, on the other hand, it's only a couple million away from becoming the top film of the lot, but it would have to gross at least $115 million -- almost triple what it has done so far -- in order to outgross the COMBINED overseas grosses of all those films.

Am I missing any titles? I'm assuming Syriana and the like are a little too removed, both chronologically and even contentwise, to qualify for this list. (Syriana is about corporations and terrorists, yes, but is it about Iraq and Afghanistan specifically, in the way that these other films are? ... Hmmm, I guess The Kingdom might be similarly removed, contentwise that is; chronologically, it did come out in the midst of all these other films.)

It will be interesting to see how Stop-Loss fares, compared to these films.

I am also intrigued to see that Vantage Point is the only film mentioned in this entire post that does not yet have its own A&F thread.

Thanks for that link, Peter. I watched the film last night, after renewing the DVD the past two weeks, wondering if I'd get to it. I'm glad I did. It's far and away the best film I've seen about Iraq and the war (yes, I've seen a few -- not all, but a few of the more high-profile docs), beautifully filmed. I'm not sure if this is straight documentary, or if some scenes are staged for the camera. (The scenes in the auto shop seemed almost scripted, but they worked well.)

It's the form here, not just the content (although the three-fold story structure provides a more full-orbed view of Iraq than I've seen in other films about the country), that makes this film so worth watching. The editing and images are quite striking.

I'm glad I made time for this one.