iraq at the movies... awesome!

While film audiences had to wait almost a decade for the Vietnam War to be dissected on the silver screen, today’s fast paced information era almost demands for Iraq to be tackled in the cinema as quickly as Bush decided to invade it. A pair of feature films released over the next few weeks will bring us to the brink of the Iraq War, both at home and abroad, and offer glimpses as honest as any news broadcast. In Irwin Winkler’s Home of the Brave, the director crafts crisscrossing tales of four soldiers and their struggles in life after combat, while Phillip Haas’ The Situation opts for a more tense scrutiny of the shifting allegiances that are muddling the war effort and any chance of solution in the near future. Winkler’s film is an obvious a pro-soldier campaign meant to highlight the injustices done to the men and women of uniform, whose noble sacrifices are too often forgotten once home. Its heart is in the right place, but at time the films comes off as forced and would have benefited from singling in on one or two of its characters rather than trying to drape a plot over a vast cross section of the country. On the other hand, Haas’ film, drawn from the script of real life Iraq war journalist Wendell Steavenson , displays pinpoint accuracies on the strategies and interests at every angle in Iraq but falls short when it tries to develop an emotional arcs to tie it all together. In lieu of these intermittent flaws both films provide a clear view of how Iraq is changing our culture, and might just be the shot needed to get through to those anesthetized by today’s homogenous news reports.

Home of the Brave opens in the battlefields of Iraq, but is more concerned with the psychological scars that a battle carries than the tense action of urban warfare. After their platoon is ambushed and they suffer varying degrees of loss, Dr. Will Marsh (Samuel L. Jackson), Vanessa Price (Jessica Biel), Jamal Aiken (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson), and Tommy Yates (Brian Presely) all return to their own struggles at homes in Spokane, Washington. Unfortunately, Biel is no more believable as an amputee gym instructor as she is a flaxen haired soldier. But when she laments that her inabilities to adjust are only met with longer lists of drug prescriptions there is a note of truth, and its these moments where the film succeeds best. Both Jacksons’ stories seem tired as the older one channels his anger towards the bottle, and the younger rapper-turned thespian simply turns his towards inexpressive mumblings. Their resolutions, one bitter and the other sweet, can be seen coming a long way off and neither are given much room to ventures past their one note characters. Lastly, it is Presely’s attempts to find acceptance back home that are the most angst ridden and heartfelt. Bouncing around dead end jobs, he must defend himself from a father who won’t or can’t understand his feelings of guilt, and strains to justify the U.S. mission to his dead comrade’s girlfriend (Christina Ricci).

wow, even Jessica Biel knows that war is hell

In his final narration, there is a clear glimpse of the mentality that propels soldier towards harm’s way again and again. At times Home of the Brave may be too sappy, and some of its well worn clichés are just pale imitations of those in Deer Hunter, it is at least a film for a new generation of war veterans. At a time when awareness is just as paramount, if not much more expected, it is a welcome dose of reality and its timely release hopefully represents a changing tide in acceptance and confrontation of the unseen wounds of war.


someone get these motherf$%*ing insurgents out this motherf#@&ing country

Much less pro-American, but no less accurate, The Situation offers a disturbing look at why the troubles in Iraq may only be growing worse. At the center of the story lays an American journalist (Connie Nielsen), and her relationships with a U.S. intelligence officer (Damien Lewis) and an Iraqi photographer (Mido Hamada). But the love triangle here is underdeveloped, too often deterring from the half dozen other story lines of personal loyalties that boil over between Americans, insurgents, police, civilians, diplomats and journalists.


better, and done by all time anti-bush man O. Stone

The film begins with an American patrol tossing a pair of boys over a bridge, killing one and inciting more ire from the locals. Not far away, an insurgent leader promises revenge, while hiding out from the American supported police force, which it turns its little more than a band of thugs operating along old tribal feuds. Haas cleverly reveals each party guilty of their own cold-blooded murders, and his tale is one with no clear cut answer, and his sympathies lie mostly with those who are not given the luxury of choosing sides or documenting them, but must simply duck at the signs of danger. Despite his journalist themes baring striking similarities to those of Oliver Stone’s El Salvador, Haas has still made a tense and unique film. He places most of the violence at the periphery of his characters’ lives in a chilling effect that submerges the audience in the perils an unclear war, and leaves little time for judgments. Towards the end of the film as the different paths of his characters begin to collide, one surmises the problems of Iraq succinctly, “There are no bad guys and there are no good guys. It’s not gray, either. It’s just that the truth shifts according to each person you talk to.”

Thankfully, both films are not content with the head shaking lamentations of past generations and signal a new direction towards addressing today’s conflicts as they are unfolding. While this bold move will no doubt further polarize the issues, it takes away excuses of ignorance and moves away from hapless regret. Rather, both Winkler and Haas want to push us further into a discourse that may possibly consider a solution in time.



Awww, poop. Budget cut backs only provide round trip airfare for dead soldiers... that's bootleg