Review of Control Room (2004) by Kai P — 21 Jul 2007

Released in 2004 this film was invisible beneath the release of the much more sensationalized "Fahrenheit 911," but it's by no means less astounding. While Fahrenheit was pretty much a direct attack on the Bush Administration, this movie probably does far more damage to the current administration without that even being its objective.

The movie follows three producers of the Arab-channel Al-Jazeera news network during the opening days of the Iraq invasion in 2003. The interviews and perspectives of these individuals are really eye-opening and often offer opinions and views that you wouldn't expect.

One of the producers admits outright that he would jump at the opportunity if offered a job by Fox News and would more than happily send his children to school in America. Also, particularly startling is a scene showing a sequence where a U.

S. warplane is filmed firing a bomb directly on Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Baghdad, after the U.S. Government required the network to provide them their exact HQ location to avoid just such an event.

This is exactly the kind of documentary for anyone dying to see something other than this own country's poor excuse for news coverage. Control Room will shock and startle you in ways that will stay with you for a very long time.