The best thing about “Full Battle Rattle” is its constant sense of the surreal. This is an Iraq War documentary that never leaves Southern California, and a movie full of carnage in which nobody is actually hurt.
The setting is the military training center in Fort Irwin, Calif., where the Mojave Desert provides a useful setting for preparing soldiers for service in Iraq. The military has improved on nature, however, with an incredibly elaborate training program.
The film documents the way U.S. troops are sent to the Iraq Simulation facility: a collection of mock Iraqi towns populated by real Iraqi-Americans. Here, soldiers will essentially role-play a military occupation, following scripted scenarios and learning how to interact with locals.
Filmmakers Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss settle in at Medina Wasl, a faux village where a U.S. combat brigade will practice tactics and diplomacy for a couple of weeks.
The scenario, as proposed by the battalion commander, begins with the beheading of Medina Wasl’s “deputy mayor,” and the tension that results. Every detail is thought out, including shooting the terrorist-style video of the fake murder.
The ending of this story line is not written, however, and it’s up to the various “actors” to improvise their way to a conclusion — either harmony between soldiers and locals, or quagmire.
There are simulated explosions, and guns, although the shooting in the movie is actually an elaborate kind of laser-tag. As for the village re-creation, Hollywood could not have done better — right down to the goats wandering around the set.
“Full Battle Rattle” looks briefly into the lives of some of the Iraqi-Americans employed in this peculiar job, as well as the soldiers whose role-playing is about to become abruptly real. When the call comes about their real deployment in Iraq, the play-acting spirit turns somber.
The movie doesn’t necessarily dig up the insights it could have, but the accumulation of bizarre details is enough to make your jaw drop. One can understand the usefulness of the Iraq Simulation — if it helps keep people alive, it’s worth it — and yet marvel at the sheer overwhelming strangeness of it.
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