IMDb RATING
7.2/10
4.9K
YOUR RATING
CNN producer Robert Wiener, his colleague and their crew venture to the Iraqi capital to cover the Gulf War.CNN producer Robert Wiener, his colleague and their crew venture to the Iraqi capital to cover the Gulf War.CNN producer Robert Wiener, his colleague and their crew venture to the Iraqi capital to cover the Gulf War.
- Won 3 Primetime Emmys
- 8 wins & 20 nominations total
Pamela Sinha
- Fatima
- (as Pamela Sinna)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe reason CNN is approved to use the four-wire is said to be because the ministry believes them to be "fair and balanced". FOX News' motto is "fair and balanced".
- GoofsThe incident where Iraqi soldiers took newborn babies out of their incubators and left them to die turned out to be a hoax in order to generate support for the Persian Gulf War. This was exposed in 1992, a decade before the movie was released.
- Quotes
Ingrid Formanek: Say this- "La tapar, ana Sahaffi".
Robert Wiener: La tapar, ana Sahaffi.
Ingrid Formanek: Pretty good.
Robert Wiener: What does it mean?
Ingrid Formanek: "Don't shoot, I'm a journalist".
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2003)
Featured review
This film is a well-written and acted live-action documentary of Robert Wiener's experiences working as a CNN correspondent in Baghdad during the Gulf War. Overall, it is pretty good. The speeches all resonate, and it is good to see some of the atrocities committed by Saddam's army brought to light again; revisionist Americans love to paint the Gulf War as a "quest for oil", just as they love to browbeat America for using the atomic bomb during WWII. Obviously there are many sides to any story, and for the most part "Live from Baghdad" does a good job of showing what was really happening in Iraq, along with serving the Americans an occasional slice of humble pie for their brashness and xenophobia.
Interestingly, the weakest part of the movie is the director. Mick Jackson has a lot of experience (I'm amazed to find out that he directed Steve Martin's "L.A. Story"), but his work here falls into two distinct categories: workmanlike and/or irritating. The workmanlike scenes aren't so bothersome. But occasionally he'll pull a trick out of his hat, and it's always hackneyed - particularly his fascination with long shots of people staring. This is one of those art house things that you just have to suffer through, along with the excessively talky relationship between Wiener and Ingrid. It is a distinctly American conceit, as seen in such dreck as "Pearl Harbor", to take something as colossal as a war and use it as a backdrop for a hamfisted love story. I also found it a little unsettling that the reporters were laughing and slapping each other on the back after the bombing, while outside their relatively safe hotel people were picking their loved ones out of the rubble.
It is definitely a gigantic commercial for CNN, but you know that going in. The guy worked for CNN. If you watch a documentary about Colonel Sanders, you have to expect some fried chicken.
Some people have dismissed the film as propaganda; I must point out that while it does paint our involvement in the Gulf War in a positive light, it makes no reference to the modern situation except to state that Saddam Hussein is still in power. If you were against the war, then of course there's no way you will like this film. But if you were against it without knowing anything about it except some friend of yours said "we're doing it for oil!", then you should do quite a bit of research ... and this film is as good a place as any to start.
Interestingly, the weakest part of the movie is the director. Mick Jackson has a lot of experience (I'm amazed to find out that he directed Steve Martin's "L.A. Story"), but his work here falls into two distinct categories: workmanlike and/or irritating. The workmanlike scenes aren't so bothersome. But occasionally he'll pull a trick out of his hat, and it's always hackneyed - particularly his fascination with long shots of people staring. This is one of those art house things that you just have to suffer through, along with the excessively talky relationship between Wiener and Ingrid. It is a distinctly American conceit, as seen in such dreck as "Pearl Harbor", to take something as colossal as a war and use it as a backdrop for a hamfisted love story. I also found it a little unsettling that the reporters were laughing and slapping each other on the back after the bombing, while outside their relatively safe hotel people were picking their loved ones out of the rubble.
It is definitely a gigantic commercial for CNN, but you know that going in. The guy worked for CNN. If you watch a documentary about Colonel Sanders, you have to expect some fried chicken.
Some people have dismissed the film as propaganda; I must point out that while it does paint our involvement in the Gulf War in a positive light, it makes no reference to the modern situation except to state that Saddam Hussein is still in power. If you were against the war, then of course there's no way you will like this film. But if you were against it without knowing anything about it except some friend of yours said "we're doing it for oil!", then you should do quite a bit of research ... and this film is as good a place as any to start.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Fuego sobre Bagdad
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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