Review of Boys of Abu Ghraib (2014) by Alex R — 11 Jul 2014

Boys of Abu Ghraib is one of those films that really could have been a good, memorable drama, but it ends up being a mediocre film due to the lack of a really good script and memorable performances. The film is your typical war drama, and tends to rely on your typical genre formula in order to create its story.

While using the infamous prison of Abu Ghraib as a setting, the film follows a soldier who befriends an inmate during his tour of duty in Iraq. The idea is interesting, but the payoff is poor. Obviously, there is only a few ways to make a film with Abu Ghraib as a setting, and being to pull it off as it's quite a touchy subject after the scandal in 2004.

Some ideas here are good, but for the most part it feels rushed, and the film's ideas never materialize into something really good. That's a shame because the film really could have been something good in terms of a drama and war film, but it ends up being a mediocre film that never satisfies.

The abuse scandal raised plenty of debate and much criticism, and with good reason, here we get that aspect of the torture and humiliation, but it doesn't hammer the point across fully, and watching the film, I felt like they left a bit out.

If the film would have been better developed, with much care with rewriting the story, I think that the film's effect would have resonated much more with the viewer, instead of having the torture scenes played out for mere shock value.

Yes, it's shocking, disgusting among other things, but what fails here is the fact the sheer dehumanization process of which these soldiers go through in order to commit such atrocious acts against enemy combatants.

More development in that area could have been much better because as it is, the film just rushes through that, and there never seems to be a conflict of interest that suggests that what these guys did was against the rules.

If a few characters did that in the film and it did have a bit, but it was only briefly mentioned just for the sake of giving the film a ying/yang perspective, and it just doesn't pull through. Boys of Abu Ghraib could have been much better, but it's not awful, however it does leave a lot to be desired and considering its subject, it's a shame the filmmakers never managed to make something truly memorable or something to make you ask important questions.