The cheapness and flexibility of digital video has meant that documentaries about current events can be assembled faster than ever. The Iraq War has been particularly well documented, almost to the point where you might begin to wonder what more can be said.
Well, a lot more, as it turns out. “The War Tapes” is an incredibly vital film, and one without a political agenda – unless turning cameras over to U.S. soldiers and allowing them to provide their own commentary constitutes a political agenda.
Filmmaker Deborah Scranton gave miniature camcorders to three members of the New Hampshire National Guard before they went to Iraq: Sgt. Steve Pink, Spc. Mike Moriarty and Sgt. Zach Bazzi. They did the filming in Iraq, while Scranton shot footage of their loved ones back home (which is interesting, but a little too close to “60 Minutes”-style reportage).
What emerges is raw and harrowing. Bombs go off in the near distance, trucks rumble across roads that might well be booby-trapped, and encounters with Iraqis range from playful to hostile. (“Occupation doesn’t come naturally for an infantry outfit,” one soldier says.)
The three soldiers provide an interesting range of attitudes. Moriarty left his wife and child behind because he felt strongly about the war, but he is clearly sobered by what he sees. His support of the war and the Bush administration doesn’t exactly collapse, but when he returns home he decides he will not re-enlist.
Bazzi is of Lebanese descent and speaks Arabic, which means he gets into some unusual encounters with locals. Even with his more jaundiced view of the war, he takes soldiering extremely seriously, and is open to returning to Iraq after his initial stint is over.
Pink is somewhere between the two, a sardonic observer who gets enthralled by the action of the place. Enthralled but also traumatized, as his forceful diary entries make clear.
They capture the minute-by-minute anxiety and disorder of the war zone. They also cast a cynical eye on the participation of Halliburton (whose former CEO, Dick Cheney, is now vice president) subsidiary KBR, which has its hands on various parts of the war machinery, including trucks and food. One Guardsman points out that every time a solider takes an extra Styrofoam plate to keep his food warm, KBR charges the taxpayer another $28.
And they capture horror, including an incident in which an Iraqi woman is accidentally killed by oncoming military trucks. This is ground-level reality, and required viewing if you care about the war.
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