While the bulk of The War Tapes takes place on the front lines, Scranton also conducted insightful interviews with her subjects' friends and family back home.
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07/06/06
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The War Tapes (2006)
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Reviews Counted:64
Fresh:63
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.9/10
Consensus: Candid, eye-opening footage gives viewers a close-up -- and educational -- look at the experiences of American soldiers in Iraq, a viewpoint not normally seen.
Theatrical Release:Jun 2, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: Straight from the front lines in Iraq, THE WAR TAPES is the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves. Funnier, spicier, and more gut wrenching than news reports, this is Operation Iraqi... [More]
Director: Deborah Scranton
Reviews for The War Tapes
It's definitely a bipartisan film, one that may open the eyes of those that have chosen one side or another.
07/08/06
The direct-cinema authenticity that a soldier's eye gives to this largely street-fought war...lends The War Tapes its primary strength.
10/14/06
Universally Worthwhile -- not just as a documentary on this war. But as a documentary on this war, I think it's quite interestingly balanced.
10/12/06
A scary diary of their increasingly dehumanized daily lives (mostly spent protecting supply convoys on the dangerous highways) and the movie evokes the futile larger war around them in a series of haunting images.
10/19/06
The cinematic equivalent to a ribbon magnet, The War Tapes reaps festival awards while less tunnel-visioned docs (like Laura Poitras's My Country, My Country) go undistributed. So much for dissenting media channels.
05/30/06
Top CriticThese men have a point of view, plenty of them in fact, they just may not make sense to mere civilians. And that's as it should be.
06/01/06
No matter what you think of the U.S. presence in Iraq, the film will disturb or startle or dismay you.
09/15/06
Top CriticPlenty of money for big businesses in Operation Iraqi Freedom but little moral or financial support for returning troops and their traumas.
06/01/06
As raw and disturbing as it is wry and satirical, the resulting portrait is a powerfully unique film that goes beyond commenting on Operation Iraqi Freedom to become a provocative meditation on war itself.
09/30/06
Watching The War Tapes is a bit like sifting though puzzle pieces and studying the images, but it's possible to make at least some of those pieces fit.
07/06/06
A riveting firsthand look at the conflict on the battlefield, in the barracks, and on the home front, unfiltered by any partisan prejudice.
09/14/06
Top CriticIntentionally or not, the movie locates a strain of ignorance to go along with the bravery
08/30/09
More powerful and effective than any Hollywood war movie could ever hope to be.
06/02/06
A painfully intimate snapshot of who they are, the damage they inflict on an unseen enemy and what they endure while doing so, in all its absurd, dehumanizing and ennobling contradictions.
10/05/06
See The War Tapes. Maybe this picture can be worth a thousand lives.
05/30/06
Top CriticHomecoming is when Scranton's film gets really interesting: Having seen the soldiers' footage intercut with tapes of families and girlfriends anxiously awaiting their return, we get a good sense of just how much war has changed them.
06/02/06
A remarkable film, a you-are-there document that allows us to worry about the soldier who's risking his life even as we ponder the rights and wrongs of this military engagement.
08/31/06
Top CriticA powerfully distressing film.
05/31/06
Top CriticThe filmmakers did a masterful job assembling the extensive footage, and creating a coherent beginning (the soldiers' deployment), middle (tour of duty), and end (the return home).
06/24/06
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