Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

YouHeart I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

shakercoola An interesting documentary about one of the few mainstream reporters to live in Iraq near-continuously since before the American invasion and gained early acclaim due to his willingness to establish contacts with the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi insurgency and early days of the Islamic State. Frankly, many scenes are obscene, and I do not recommend anyone of a nervous disposition to watch this film. It is, however, an insight into the brutality of warfare up close which I don't recall seeing in any mainstream film release. What it doesn't do is give much insight on 'Al-Zarqawi'. It is more of a personal account of his difficult time. A visceral, harrowing distillation of the reporter's seven years on the front line.

Tom Dooley 'Time' magazine reporter Michael Ware was sent to Iraq in 2003 to cover the allies take down of Saddam Hussein. The Americans made short work of getting to Baghdad and toppling the regime. In the power vacuum that was created many factions emerged with differing and often extremist ideologies and soon insurrection became rife.Ware was keen to see the war from both sides and went out of his way to contact the insurgents. This he was able to do after gaining the trust of a number of players. He was then used to 'promote' videos of their attacks and other deeds. He soon became involved with one of the most brutal of these insurgents - Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. In this film he chronicles what he did in a linear format which also relates how the conflict grew and developed, this goes on for some seven years.The footage is often extremely upsetting; showing the aftermath of suicide bombings, torture and beheadings. He has managed to get some very gritty footage and he did put his personal safety on the line on more than one occasion. The question that is left slightly hanging is whether he was abetting their crimes or merely reporting what occurred. He does mention the ethical conflict but some will find it inadequate. However, that is not the point of the film. This is a true account of what one man did in a war that many will say was totally unjustified. I found it upsetting, moving, heart breaking, visceral and sad. This is a film you will not be able to say you 'liked', it is a film that people should see, the true face of war is often air brushed by the media – this is anything but and as such is a film I can recommend.

Khattab Al Sistani It starts as something we have already seen from Iraq. One side shoots, another shoots back, people die. This time you don't get to view this from a comfortable distance. This time you see the dirty side of the war. Although the insurgents are bad guys here, they are still human beings. Yes, sure, it's the war and the rule of the game is shoot to kill. But when the shooting stops you expect people to revert back to normal. What you will witness is a lack of empathy for another human being. And that's the most scary part of the documentary. The insurgent dies because of the brain injury, but the living soldiers will have to live with it for the rest of their lives, unless they have brain injuries themselves(no pun intended). That's something for the whole humanity to observe and learn.

Leftbanker I remember sitting in a bar in downtown Seattle on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq when a young couple sitting beside me interrupted my conversation with my friends. They objected to my objection to the coming war. I asked them if they knew the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Of course, they didn't to which I added, "You will know the difference soon enough." It's so utterly ironic that we Americans are shielded from the true horrors of war by our censorship yet grotesque violence permeates our films and TV shows. I heard so many "warnings" about this documentary, about how "disturbing" the violence it depicts and I wonder what people thought war was at its core. War is about destroying people, literally destroying human beings en masse. The people murdered don't get up after it's all over and go on to do something else, like the extras in an Arnold Schwarzenegger film. Real violence isn't fun or cool like it's made out to be by Quentin Tarantino. War is about destroying lives and those lives destroyed go on to haunt the lives of those left living.War destroys the ability of people to go on living, as we are seeing now in Syria which is a direct result of the Iraq War. These cities in Syria can't be rebuilt nor can much of those in Iraq that were bombed almost to extinction. Of course, all of this is pretty remote for Americans living on the other side of the world.Another thing never considered is that for Muslim men violence can serve as a substitute for sex. I saw this in Lebanon in the 1980s. If women and alcohol are proscribed in your culture what outlet do young men have? Now all young men take this route but it is usually the fail-safe path of losers Muslims like we are seeing in Belgium and France. Losers who can't meet women or too cowardly to admit they are homosexual are turning to suicide bombings as a form of redemption.