Educational Media Reviews Online

This documentary explores the political implications of the U.S. led occupation of Iraq, not only for Americans but also for different peoples within Iraq and within Islamic society.

For the first twenty minutes of the film, I found myself wondering what the thesis is. About halfway through the program, I was able to figure it out: the United States has little understanding of Iraqi history or culture, and because of that, very serious mistakes are being made. Even though many of these mistakes are made with the best of intentions, they are causing the situation in Iraq to deteriorate. Along with the lack of effective communication between the U.S. and the Iraqi people (and the U.S. and Muslim nations as a whole), the Iraqi people are not a monolithic body and the country’s internal schisms are worsening. Because of that, the country is falling into civil war.

Despite the content, this film was not effective at engaging the interest of the viewer. The cinematographer seems to be overly fond of close-ups during interviews, the same footage was used repeatedly through the film, and the subtitles were hard to read. Not only that, but when subtitles were provided for heavily accented spoken English, the subtitles corrected for syntax and vocabulary as well, sometimes with slight variations in meaning - which made me wonder what other “corrections” were being made in translation.

Despite the sometimes graphic footage, I find it hard to believe that it would keep the attention of a student in a classroom. While the content is very current, you can find the same information in more depth from various news sources. At a cost of $300, I cannot recommend this film.