The War Tapes

I just saw this film at the Tribeca Film Festival and was moved by how compelling it was.

Director Deborah Scranton had an opportunity to become an embedded journalist with a National Guard Unit from New Hampshire deployed to Iraq. She turned down the opportunity, but instead gave cameras to several soldiers who agreed to film their experiences while serving their tour of duty. The images are striking and disturbing. The words of the soldiers are as real and raw as anything I've ever seen. These are men who are facing a deadly enemy every day yet still do their job proudly and professionally. The soldiers do not hold back their views on the war; and those views do differ wildly. Nonetheless, they all believe firmly that no matter the reason why we are there, we must finish the job right. It was also a special treat to watch the audience give them a several minute standing ovation during the Q & A. These are all intelligent and heroic men who sacrifice a great deal. Even more amazing, they reveal their flaws for the camera, and their humanity is even more compelling.

Had the filmmakers merely shown footage of the soldiers, that would have been enough. However, they also took footage of the families during the year these husbands, fathers and sons were gone. The wives, girlfriends and mothers show the viewer that not only are the soldiers sacrificing a great deal, but so are the families. The footage of one mother who escaped a war-torn Lebanon only to see her son go off to war as a volunteer was absolutely heart wrenching. I would challenge anyone not to cry at that scene, and many others. Most movies invoke emotion by a good story or good acting. This story is real and the people are real, and that is what makes it so overwhelmingly powerful.

Honestly, I had expected this film to be an anti-war or Bush-bashing screed but the film is both political and non-political. No matter how one feels about the war, this film will make their views even stronger.

This film deserves critical acclaim. More importantly, this film deserves to be watched by as many people as possible.

THE WAR TAPES is one of the finest films to come out of Operation Iraqi Freedom. What sets this film apart is that it is the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves. Sergeant Steve Pink, a college English major before joining The National Guard, and several of his buddies filmed their experiences in the spring of 2004. The arc of the film encompasses the full range of their story; Training, Deployment, Combat, and finally, The Homecoming. Condensing hundreds of hours of unhampered footage, Director Deborah Scranton, and Producer/Editor Steve James (HOOP DREAMS) create ninety-seven minutes of enthralling Film Verite. This is far superior to the weak, and usually partisan, 'embedded' approach to this war. The soldiers very convincingly expound on the wide variety of their political opinions and their differences on the enforcement of our country's foreign policy. One of the men tells of the pervasive influence of Houston, Texas based Halliburton Corporation which operates seemingly without oversight. He says, "Everybody stands to make money the longer that we are there". He goes on to depict and detail a few of these limitless cost over-runs. Could this be one factor in our slow departure from Iraqi? After watching this section of the film it caused me to see, "Support The Troops", in a less than noble light. However, you come away from THE WAR TAPES not with a new vision of how America's geopolitical policy is formed, but rather how this endeavor changed the men who strove to establish it.

Let me repeat it here: do yourself a favor and read how this documentary was made before watching it. It will enhance your experience by 1000s.

Just consider this: the editing team got some 800 hours of footage.

Hours, not minutes, mind you.

First hand footage from real soldiers deployed to Iraq. No camera operators with decades of experience, no skilled directors able to gently push a certain character to perform a certain way, no audio guy.

The director was able to equip a bunch of soldiers who agreed to get some filmmaking training and record their life on the front. (with the army OKeing everything of course). Those were simple cameras. Camera functioning with tape. Crazy. It seems to me they kind of created a gopro camera before it became mainstream.

The emotions are real, and raw. The footage is brutal as well as the dialogues.

Amazing documentary edited together by extremely talented people.

Must see.

Not being an American and not really knowing much about the politics surrounding the war, but also not feeling strongly one way or the other about the USA's deployment there, really helped me to understand the soldiers viewpoints, personal feelings and fears portrayed within this 'movie'.

I can express nothing but respect for these men for the things they saw and experiences they had.

On a personal level i'm still unsure if the war in Iraq is right or moral but i feel that isn't the issue, whats done is done and the only aim now should be bringing stability to those peoples in such a way they can make their own futures.

An excellent insightful documentary which is not biased or 'sugar coated' making it a very raw and sometimes shocking experience to watch and i hope it strikes each person who watches it in their own way really making them think - away from the political aims/games the media portrays for us.

Deborah Scranton put digvid cameras in the hands of several members of a New Hampshire National Guard Unit deployed to Iraq early in 2004. She then guided their filming of experiences there, reviewing footage fed back via Internet, responding with tips on improving their photography and complementing the content. The Unit stayed in country for 16 months, and was involved in highly dangerous missions, i.e., the invasion of Fallujah in November, 2004, and escorting supply truck convoys here and there. Scranton distilled 900 hours of tapes to yield this 97 minute film that focuses on the experiences of three soldiers.

The footage succeeds in capturing the unpredictability, fear, chaos and ugliness of war. But the scenes that depict these matters make up just part of the film – the most revealing and unique part. Much of the remaining footage is just so-so, not up to the quality seen in professionally shot docs like Gunner Palace or Iraq in Fragments. Still, Scranton's bold experiment, moving beyond freelance or "embedded" photojournalism to the recruitment of soldier-journalists, is a worthwhile effort. My grades: 6.5/10 (low B) (Seen on 10/12/06)