Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

joshuwon I don't have to say anything else. This movie supports terrorism and ignites terrorism against the United States.They interview only American Amry personnel that are all, to a man, express views that are:1.) Lazy 2.) Anti-American 3.) Pro-terroristNow it shames me to to see these people operating in our Army. But of course these are the people that these terrorist "film-makers" chose to focus on. These so-call film-makers are terrorists in that they give material support to terrorist activity. Then i realize that it is our Marines who really do the real fighting.

Bruce Burns In case you haven't noticed (and why should you), the United States has been engaged in a massive war for almost three years and over 2,000 American lives lost. There have been several documentaries made about the war, but sadly most of them have been about the White House and Pentagon and what the filmmakers think of them."Occupation: Dreamland" is different. It tells the story of the war not from a politician's or reporter's eye-view, but through the stories of our troops. There is none of the clever editing or voiced-over partisan hyperbole that you get from propagandists like Fox News or Michael Moore. All we see is the war as it happens and the soldiers' comments on what is going on.The soldiers do not all agree with each other about the necessity of the war or support for the current President, but they all agree that they have a job to do and a duty to do it to the best of their ability. What I also like is that there were Iraqis willing to talk to the filmmakers about their perspective about the war, and you realize that these are not just a race of drooling assassins (the way they would be portrayed in a Hollywood action film), but frustrated human beings who resent having to have foreign troops in their neighborhoods.Watching this film, you see how these men deal with boredom alternating with fear for one's life. And in between battles and the doldrums, there are USO shows and scary retention meetings, where recruiters basically tell the soldiers they are losers who can't function in civilian society.Pro-war zealots will not like the fact that the troops are not shown to be super-patriotic he-men, but imperfect young men barely out of adolescence who find their job all too daunting, implying that this war has been planned poorly up to this point. Anti-war activists will not like that the movie clearly shows that these young men are the only thing keeping Iraq from total chaos, implying that an artificial timetable for bringing troops home will lead to disaster.I think that it is criminal that this film has not yet gone into wide release. If I had my way, every American--especially those fair-weather patriots who say they support the war, but who do not serve in the military and/or will not allow their children to enlist--would be made to see this film. It might make everyone think twice before giving easy answers to the war.

Nameless_Numberhead_Man Considering all its accolades on the documentary festival circuit, I had big hopes for Occupation: Dreamland, but ultimately it's not that much different from the embedded-era episodes of "Nightline" et al in the spring of 2003. Which is not at all to say it's unenjoyable -- the soldiers are endearing to a man, but so are most people once they're known on an intimate level. It's doubtful that Occupation: Dreamland will change many opinions toward the war itself, as the film is refreshingly even-handed, but the film certainly could help to correct one's misconception of soldiers in war-time. Ernie Pyle would probably approve.

trilobee i went to see "occupation: dreamland" not because i'm interested in iraq or US foreign policy but because i'm interested in the psychology of soldiers & people at war - in particular, what allows someone to hurt, damage & kill someone else - and i really enjoyed getting up close & personal with the soldiers of the 82nd airborne. their candid reflections on what they're doing there & what the war is about are equally charming & terrifying ("i have confidence the government wouldn't send us just to protect oil"; "it's all about adding another OPEC country") and some of the footage detailing army practices (the reenlistment scene, for example) are just plain terrifying. the film is also a useful companion piece to the fresh-faced army press officer of "control room". quite frankly, these guys seemed a lot more clued up, despite being (as one review puts it), "21-28 year-old high school dropouts and failed junior college liberal arts majors whose enlistment stems more from a lack of options than patriotism or ideology."speaking of reviews, one of the most interesting things for me, as a non-American, were comments like the following from the reviews: "In this sense, then, the greatest accomplishment of 'Occupation: Dreamland' is showing those of us on the home front that it really is possible, Republican howling to the contrary aside, to support our troops without supporting the war itself." um, sorry? sure, you don't need to spit on them from a great height, but you either support one country invading another or you don't. the soldiers conscientiously carried out their instructions to spread a little good pr, but no one was fooled, least of all the soldiers themselves. shame, really, that they weren't being used on true peace-keeping missions in places that could use a little first-world intervention. darfur or the ivory coast, anyone?