“I love being a soldier. The only bad thing about the Army is you can’t pick your war.”
This year’s winner for Best Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival is getting a theatrical release.
Director Deborah Scranton found five volunteers from Charlie Company, 3rd of the 172nd Infantry (Mountain) Regiment to carry video cameras with them during their 16 month tour of duty in Iraq. Scranton, together with Producer Robert May (The Fog of War) and Producer/Editor Steve James (Hoop Dreams) piece together very personal accounts of what it’s like to be on the ground during Operation Iraqi Freedom and what it’s like to go home again to friends and family. It’s a sobering look at the effects of combat on soldiers, their loved ones and the country they’re sent to protect.
The three on-camera National Guardsmen, first-time video journalists are Sergeant Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi, and Specialist Mike Moriarty. Bazzi is Lebanese-American fluent in Arabic, Pink is a wise-cracking writer, and Moriarty is a father of two who reenlisted after 9-11.
The primary duty of the unit is to accompany and protect Kellog, Brown & Root (a defense contractor and subsidiary of Halliburton) convoys as well as train some of the new Iraqi Police recruits. Every time the soldiers venture outside the base they are venerable to IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices, usually roadside cars) as well as insurgent gun fire.
The apprehension they feel is palpable. The immediacy of the video format truly conveys the danger all around them. (Note: I say this in all seriousness, if you are affected by watching shaking, constantly moving hand-held camera footage, you’ll be better served sitting further back in the theater.)
The task to boil down thousands of hours of footage to feature length was daunting. The filmmakers were insistent that the voice come strictly from the soldiers. But to say this film has no political point of view is oversimplifying things. Each soldier infuses their portion of their footage with their own personal views on why America is there and what their part is within the bigger picture.
The three represent a microcosm of American society: Moriarty is the patriotic Bush supporter; Bazzi is the realist and Pink is the middle of the road guy there to serve his unit and get home. But at no time do any of these three or the others they speak to on camera fool themselves that what they’re doing there is absolutely right. Frustration is as common an emotion as fear. Bazzi expresses disbelief at the lack of cultural sensitivity training that should have been provided to the occupying forces and one soldier remarks that the reason they’re there is to guard these convoys of food stuffs, dubbing the conflict the “War for Cheese.”
The War Tapes is a truly harrowing account of what it’s like on the ground for America’s fighting forces. It doesn’t flinch. It shows the warts and all of warfare. To the credit of these soldiers, they don’t hold back their opinions or their fears from the camera. This film is a testament to their dedication as much as it is a cold examination of what America is struggling against physically as well as morally in Iraq.
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