In Iraq, Post Invasion, Where No One Can Hear You Bleed
The Popcorn Reel Movie Review: "No End In Sight"
By Omar P.L. Moore/August 9, 2007
Streets of fire: Tanks rumbling down through Baghdad, Iraq, in Charles
Ferguson's documentary "No End In Sight". (Photo: Representative Pictures)
Charles Ferguson's "No End In Sight" perfectly stirs anger but does so in a
calm, non-provocative fashion, if that makes sense. The filmmaker counts
on the audience's ability to comprehend that the calamities of Iraq by
themselves evoke anger in many, without any supplemental agitation. "No
End In Sight", which opens tomorrow in San Francisco and other cities while
continuing in New York, is the first in-depth effort about the invasion of Iraq
and its aftermath, the aftermath of which is the center of this cool, clinical
and level-headed documentary. Mr. Ferguson interviews at least a dozen top
U.S. government insiders integral to the implementation of ideas and plans (or
as the documentary reveals, no plans) for Iraq, post-invasion. The most
riveting parts of the film are not the recounting of what happened or should
have happened as told by the insiders, whom include Richard Armitage, Barbara
Bodine, Jay Garner, Philip Heath and Walt Slocombe (who is one of the few former
Bush administration officials willing to set himself up for ridicule and
exposure on camera), but are the silent juxtaposition of title cards containing
facts that contradict the images of government officials making opposite
statements. There are also interviews of former U.S. marines who fought in
Iraq, some of whom were severely injured.
Mr. Ferguson takes the viewer back in time over 20 years prior to the March 19,
2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, to the U.S. government's financial and weapons
support of Iraq and its former president Sadaam Hussein in its late 1970's to
early 1980's war against neighboring country Iran (which ironically now is said
to be benefiting from the current state of affairs in Iraq, either by assisting
its once bitter enemy, or through Iraqi revolts against the American presence in
its country. Ferguson then proceeds to the infamous 1983 meeting between
Hussein and former U.S. defense secretary then-U.S. envoy to Baghdad Donald
Rumsfeld, and then the chronology that leads up to the present, ensues, broken
up by chapters such as "Chaos", "War", "NSPD-24" (a significant executive order
signed by U.S. president Bush in 2003 to transfer control of the U.S.
military from the Commander-in-Chief to the Pentagon.)
Remarkably, the film does not mention a word about the non-existence of weapons
of mass destruction -- not that it is a prerequisite for every documentary about
Iraq to do so. Equally remarkable are the opening words in the
documentary, spoken by Mr. Rumsfeld, who resigned in November 2006 from his
position as defense secretary, who says that Iraq, the first war of the 21st
century, was a "little-understood, unfamiliar war". And in his Freudian
slip, Rumsfeld is more right than he knew at the time he spoke those words in
2003.
"No End In Sight" has an acute sense of history, detailing through imagery and
the steady, quiet and monotone narration of actor Campbell Scott throughout the
film a catalogue of irreversible events that have found the country of Iraq in
the quagmire it is in at this very second. There's the discussion about
former Marsh Crisis Counseling executive L. Paul Bremer (nicknamed "Jerry") who
as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority replaced Mr. Garner and
promptly disbanded the over 500,000-strong Iraqi military, rendering them
unemployed, and, as Ferguson's film charges, fomenting the seeds of insurgency,
revolt, and finally civil war. Scott narrates that when Bremer made this
move to eliminate the Iraqi army it was the equivalent of Mr. Bremer firing five
million people in the U.S. from their jobs.
There are other staggering facts, some of which even the sharpest political news
junkie in America is presumably unaware of, as mainstream news media in the U.S.
had been busy (perhaps conveniently) covering the "shock and awe" of the initial
events of the invasion. In fairness, several mainstream news publications,
including The New York Times, apologized for not asking tougher questions
of the nation's leaders and simply running with whatever story the Pentagon was
handing them. "No End In Sight" is an intelligent discussion and analysis of the
issues that have plagued Iraq, and of all the documentaries that have either
touched upon or mentioned Iraq and the invasion by the U.S. and other coalition
countries, this is by far the best and most thought-provoking.
"No End In Sight" is not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.
The film contains occasional graphic images, although some of them are
discreetly shot. The film, which opened on July 27 in New York City and
Washington, D.C., opens in San Francisco and Seattle, among other cities on
August 10. The film's duration is one hour and 41 minutes. Here are
playdates for other parts of the
U.S.
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