On DVD: The War Tapes

Directed by Deborah Scranton and soldiers with cameras Zack Bazzi, Michael Moriarty, Stephen Pink and Duncan Domey and Brandon Wilkins

Three soldiers from the New Hampshire National Guard are deployed to Camp Anaconda in Iraq. They are like any other soldier, except they decide to film their tour of duty. Enter Oscar winning producer Robert May and director Deborah Scranton and you get The War Tapes,  a powerful amalgamation of three points of view.

This is a must see documentary of  one aspect of the war in Iraq, one of America’s hottest current political debates. We all need to see these soldiers’ stories unfold. Even then, we can’t quite understand what they experienced in Iraq, but at least we can see some of what they witnessed through their own eyes. This powerful film was recently released by Docurama on DVD.

The Film

The War Tapes is aptly named. The very words war and tape, when combined, conjure up some image of rare footage meant only for certain eyes, which makes us crave to see these tapes all the more. If anything, though, this documentary exposes something that seems to get lost in the media coverage: the war as seen from the people who have to fight it.

The War Tapes unfolds through the lenses of Zack Bazzi, Michael Moriarty, and Stephen Pink. These guys are patriotic soldiers, ready to take on the challenge of leaving their families behind in order to support the war efforts in Iraq. Lest you think the soldiers’ patriotism blinds them and what they film, you will soon learn that they don’t film Iraq through any rose colored glasses. These guys ain’t afraid of letting you see their personalities or their opinions.

Bazzi, Moriarty, and Pink all play an integral role in making sure KBR/Halliburton trucks are protected while en route to their intended destination. KBR trucks contain grocery items and supplies. As one soldier quips, “We’re moving cheese.”

Moving cheese might seem like an easy, routine job, but it’s one of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq. The convoys must suffer through a barrage of traffic (we think our rush hour is bad here), pedestrians who might step out in front of moving traffic at any moment, and explosive devices. The soldier’s protecting KBR trucks can expect attacks with IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device), RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades), and VBIEDs (Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device), the “most worrisome” device according to Zack Bazzi.

The War Tapes offer a fair amount of footage of routine caravan missions and of the dangerous situations that arise. I must warn you there are graphic scenes of bodies blown to bits. While we might be desensitized to blood and gore vis-à-vis the fictional movie industry, this footage still hits you because you know that this time it is real. It is a credit to the movie makers who decided to keep this in.

We need to see this real gore to at least understand the context in which the soldiers served, and lived for one year—a year that inevitably changed them for good. The transition is remarkable and poignant as we see normal light hearted guys become hardened even more because of the shit they have to deal with. Somehow the change doesn’t necessarily dawn on us until we hear the wives/girlfriends say how much their soldiers have changed. Perhaps we become a little hardened with the guys as we vicariously relive for one and half hours the many hours they lived.

This film beautifully shows the human side of the people on the front lines. It becomes easy to dehumanize them, no matter your political stance, because it is sometimes too painful to think about a human being being surrounded by and facing death and chaos and bullets. These soldiers speak and because we start to like them we feel like we have to listen. And I think we should. I am glad I did.

This film may reinforce your point of view or it may challenge it. If anything it lets us meet the people who step up to do what their government has asked of them in the name of freedom, whether or not we agree with it. The War Tapes is an important film that will help us appreciate one of the world’s hardest jobs: being a soldier during war.

9.5/10

The Video

Presented in wide screen, we get a variety of good quality images from the free standing cameras, mounted cameras, night vision lenses, and monochrome thermal vision cameras. It is a brilliant combination of the visual aspects of war.

8/10

The Audio

The Dolby Digital stereo is good and solid. You will have no major issues hearing this film. Sometimes the sound might be a bit too explosive during the scenes where the soldiers are under assault.

7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features

The DVD comes in a standard aramay case with a simple but catchy jacket design.

The bonus features include interviews with the soldiers, the theatrical trailer, bios of the filmmakers, and 80 minutes of extra footage. The bonus features are indexed by subchapters which make them more user friendly. I found the extra material interesting, plentiful and beneficial.

9/10

Overall 9/10 (not an average)

--Chuck Knight

Review:

The Film 9.5/10

The Video 8/10

The Audio 7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 9/10

Overall 9/10