My initial reaction to seeing this low-key but powerful film was along the lines of "wow, that's some intense stuff...and fairly well acted". I also liked the premise of it, the basic plot line. However, there are a number of issues with the film.\
First off, since it is supposedly set in the very early phase of the Iraq occupation (2003), there would not yet have been this open Sunni-Shiia hostility and the well-organized guerilla resistance/terrorism by local malcontents. These incidents were only starting to crop up in 2004 and really came to the fore in 2005, 2006. Second detail is the low level of security that the US soldiers seem to deploy while trying to work with random locals. For example, there's no way that a suicide bomber with a cooler full of explosives would have smuggled himself into an actual construction site.
I was also left wondering why the main protagonist was sent back to the States and effectively relieved of duty, as opposed to the other guys. It may have been left undefined for the artistic purposes but in a real army setting, there would have been a debrief. Is he seen as suffering from a kind of PTSD or as having gone a bit rogue, or is it a case of "mission not well handled"? The feeling it left was one that army cadres were feeling a bit sorry for this college kid and were shipping him to where he could do no harm or come in harm's way. There is this kind of a rush to wrap up the script and end the story, which rubbed me the wrong way.
As an allegory or a stylized cautionary tale, though, this is powerful - and intimate - film because it does get inside the heads of some characters and because the characters are compelling. The difficulties of working with the Iraqis and generally in an alien cultural environment were portrayed in an interesting way.
This is not a fast-paced, high body count war action flick. But some of the action sequences are intense. Lots of mixed feelings about this one.
First off, since it is supposedly set in the very early phase of the Iraq occupation (2003), there would not yet have been this open Sunni-Shiia hostility and the well-organized guerilla resistance/terrorism by local malcontents. These incidents were only starting to crop up in 2004 and really came to the fore in 2005, 2006. Second detail is the low level of security that the US soldiers seem to deploy while trying to work with random locals. For example, there's no way that a suicide bomber with a cooler full of explosives would have smuggled himself into an actual construction site.
I was also left wondering why the main protagonist was sent back to the States and effectively relieved of duty, as opposed to the other guys. It may have been left undefined for the artistic purposes but in a real army setting, there would have been a debrief. Is he seen as suffering from a kind of PTSD or as having gone a bit rogue, or is it a case of "mission not well handled"? The feeling it left was one that army cadres were feeling a bit sorry for this college kid and were shipping him to where he could do no harm or come in harm's way. There is this kind of a rush to wrap up the script and end the story, which rubbed me the wrong way.
As an allegory or a stylized cautionary tale, though, this is powerful - and intimate - film because it does get inside the heads of some characters and because the characters are compelling. The difficulties of working with the Iraqis and generally in an alien cultural environment were portrayed in an interesting way.
This is not a fast-paced, high body count war action flick. But some of the action sequences are intense. Lots of mixed feelings about this one.