Review of The War Tapes (2006) by Jwv — 09 Jan 2014

I very much like the idea of this kind of soldier-journalism. What I found particularly useful is the short introduction of every soldier filming. There's the immensely patriotic Mike Moriarty, the intelligent Zack Bazzi and then there's Steve Pink. It's interesting to see how the ideology and personality of each of these soldiers colours their journalism. I liked the parts of Zack best, he's not as ignorant and influenced as other soldiers and understands the problems the army has. He's a sharp analyst. What the army needs, as Zack rightly sees, is a cultural training before being shipped off to an unknown country.

When you have met the sensible and intelligent Zack, its hard to feel any sympathy for the average ignorant, patriotic American soldier, like when Moriarty and one of his friends criticizes Zack for socializing with the local people. Even though he puts his life on the line for his American home country, they still treat him as an outsider, which show their extreme ignorance and intolerance. "Today we kill Bazzi, and everyone that looks like Bazzi. That makes for a lot of targets today.".

Steven Pink also brightens up this documentary by his writing. He too, sees the ignorance and barbarism of his fellow soldiers. "The debate we had earlier in the day over the consistency and texture of a severed limb was not some far-off grotesque assumption. It was a genuine argument between the guy who swears it resembles hamburger, ground up but uncooked, and the guy who believes it looks more like a raw pot roast." The film features some emotionally strong and violent scenes that you would be able to see anywhere else on the mainstream media. Not for the faint of heart.

Ultimately, even the ever so patriotic Moriarty begins to question the true motives for the war. Moriarty: "I feel like the priority of KBR (Burger King) making money outweighs the priority of safety." When the soldiers' deployment in Iraq ends, the film also looks at how the soldiers cope back home with the traumatic experience they went through. Hell and Back Again is a complementary must-see if you're interested in this.

The strength of this documentary lies in the directness of the account of these soldiers. A great deal of the film's intellectual thought provoking strength comes from the account of Zack Bazzi. For me, he is really the one that elevated the documentary to its intellectual level, and provided the documentary makers with what they were really looking after.

"I love being a soldier, the only bad thing about the army is that you can't pick your war.