SYNOPSICS
The War Tapes (2006) is a English,Arabic movie. Deborah Scranton has directed this movie. Zack Bazzi,Duncan Domey,Ben Flanders,Mike Moriarty are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2006. The War Tapes (2006) is considered one of the best Documentary,War movie in India and around the world.
Straight from the front lines in Iraq, THE WAR TAPES is the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves. These soldiers bypassed Pentagon supervised media to share their experience like never before. Funnier, spicier, and more gut wrenching than news reports, this is Operation Iraqi Freedom as filmed by Sergeant Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi and Specialist Mike Moriarty. Steve is a wisecracking carpenter who aspires to be a writer. Zack is a Lebanese-American university student who loves to travel and is fluent in Arabic. Mike is a father who seeks honor and redemption. Each leaves a woman behind - a girlfriend, a mother and a wife. Through their candid footage, these men open their hearts and take us on an unforgettable journey, capturing camaraderie and humor along with the brutal and terrifying experiences they face. These soldiers got the story that 2,700 embedded reporters never could.
The War Tapes (2006) Trailers
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The War Tapes (2006) Reviews
Powerful Masterpiece.
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.
A singularly authentic portrait
In The War Tapes documentary, Sgt. Zack Bazzi, who speaks Arabic, says in his videotaped section, "A good American will always love his country and be suspicious of his government." Although I usually look for criticism of the Iraqi debacle, this statement isn't a criticism of neocons but a sincere, self-protective code of behavior. Three National Guardsmen were given cameras in 2004 to film their personal points of view one year after the beginning of the conflict. The result is a mixture of grunt humor, often better than anything scripted, and unsettling danger, where the cry of one narrator, ''This is the most helpless feeling you've ever had,'' rings solidly true as you feel the awful omnipresence of improvised explosive devices but never see them. Ditto the enemy, whose face is seen only on a mangled body but almost never on the battlefield of the deadly road to the Baghdad airport or the dark streets of Fallujah. There the IED's rule in their phantom terror. The documentary brings to the screen the reality of all war from those who know it best, the foot soldiers. As in most war films, there must be cuts to grieving or lonesome loved ones stateside, in this case rural New Hampshire. The histrionics of the usual Hollywood melodrama are absent; instead a mother, a wife, and a lover try to deal with the often unclear reasons why these men went to this war and how, upon their return, their relationships can ever return to normal because of the inevitable trauma. I was pleased, however, to see the three videographers quietly disdain having to play security guards for the civilian contractor KBR, Inc., a subsidiary of Dick Cheney's Halliburton. That these contractors are the ones to profit from the war at the expense of the American people is a fair inference from the soldiers' commentary. So The War Tapes becomes, to my simultaneous approval and disappointment, not a screed against an unjust war, but a singularly authentic portrait of the troubled heroes who make it work.
Best first hand experience I have seen about Iraq
I have seen a lot of the other documentaries that have come out, gunners palace was good, but this film really captured what soldiers roles were and what they were being forced to protect. The story goes from pre deployment to post deployment which focuses on a few soldiers lives and families as well. The film also spotlights where the money is being made in Iraq. Either way, if you care about the war in Iraq, I would strongly suggest watching this film. Again, it is providing us with another point of view needed to understand whats going on. Great Film.
Give credit where it is due!
The movie reopened some really deep wounds for me. I was in fact one of the guys in Iraq with the unit that filmed this. It is unfortunate that the Executives refused to recognize the unit as a whole. If it weren't for all 180 of us in Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 172 Infantry (Mountain), Scranton-Lacy would not have had the opportunity to get this documentary into the theaters. Let's give credit where credit is due. To my "Brothers-In-Arms" A job well done!!!! And yes, I did feel that the movie was great, all I can say is, DOWN WITH THE MEDIA!!!! They can't report the news, even when their lives depend on it. Here is to the TRUE heroes of the Military!
A Band Of Brothers
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.