Live from Baghdad

Outstanding HBO movie charting the coming of age of CNN during the opening days of the Gulf War, as producers Robert Wiener (Michael Keaton) and Ingrid Formaneck (Helena Bonham Carter) doggedly walk a tightrope between reporting the facts as they see them and keeping the Iraqi authorities from expelling them. Excellent supporting cast, in particular David Suchet as Naji Al-Hadithi, the Iraqi information minister and Bruce McGill (dodgy accent notwithstanding) as Peter Arnett. Mick Jackson's best work since A Very British Coup (1988) and hopefully the catalyst to re-energise Michael Keaton's career. In short, the finest film of it's kind since Under Fire (1983) and a wake-up call to CNN to get back to real reporting and cease its current pathetic spiral into celebrity-obsessed 24 hour chat-show oblivion.

HBO has brought us a great film here. Michael Keaton plays CNN producer Bob Weiner in this exciting tale of drama, war, and the role the media plays in current affairs. The film is about the events leading up to, and culminating in the 1991 Gulf War. We see the invasion of Kuwait months before the allied bombing raids, and we end after the first night of bombing...the movie follows the events of this time period, which include that invasion of Kuwait, the holding of American and British hostages in Iraq, CNN's rise on the media scene, becoming a very powerful international news organization thanks to their exclusive reporting from Iraq. Keaton does a very nice job here, which is what you expect from a great actor like himself...Carter, who plays the other CNN producer is very good as well, this being the first movie I have seen her in.

Nice filmmaking here...I'm not sure where it was filmed, but it sure looked like Baghdad to me...and the casting is very well all around- these guys looked so much like shaw, arnett, and to a lesser degree John Holloman- it was almost eerie. You felt like you were right in the room with these guys as they talked to Atlanta over the four wire radio they had access to (which is what helped them report the story from Iraq when no one else could.) There are some really good special effects as well, the anti aircraft fire lighting up the sky was spectacular, and once again- it helped give the feeling that you were right in the thick of things.

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.

Excellent teleplay, exemplary performances. Riveting and thought-provoking. A top-notch production all around.

Beyond what else has been said, LIVE FROM BAGHDAD hails those who, as late as 1991, stood up for the freedom of the press, the battles waged, the compromises made, their failures as well as their successes. Bush the elder had ordered the press out of Baghdad, but failed, as this teleplay depicts. When Bush the younger reentered Iraq, he offered the press corps a leash instead, which most agencies snapped up.

LIVE FROM BAGHDAD, a brilliant bit of reporting done by an extraordinary CNN team, but also a subtle homage to those who help preserve one of the most vital proponents of liberty -- a free press.

The appeal of this movie is that it makes you feel the fear, excitement, and tension that the journalists covering the Gulf War had to have felt. There are many scenes that accomplish this very well, including the scenes where the journalists are in Kuwait investigating stories of Iraqi soldiers taking babies from incubators and leaving them for dead. The interview scene with Hussein is very well done; you can imagine the intimidation Wiener felt when he had to clip a microphone on Hussein's tie.

However, nothing in the movie brings out these emotions in the audience like the shots of the skies of Baghdad illuminated with bombs and anti-aircraft fire. The bravery shown by the journalists who covered this from their hotel room instead of taking shelter is amazing to me to this day, and the movie really communicates a sense of how they must have felt.

I probably wouldn't have been anywhere near Baghdad had I been in their shoes, but now I know how they must have felt.