“Is it a game, or is it real?” asked Matthew Broderick in War Games, an 1980’s take on Stanley Kubrick’s Dr.Strangelove, and an amusingly Hollywood reflection about automated defence systems and the dangers posed. We’ve had two Gulf Wars since then, and a range of films exploring them.
‘War Is Heavy Metal’ is a short film made by Australian war-time artist George Gittoes, where he asks American soldiers in Iraq about the music they listen to, to help them function in the war zone. Although overtly about music from hardcore hiphop to heavy metal, seeing the soldiers flip through CD jackets and sing along to their favourite songs really helps bring alive the contemporary nature of the conflict – this is *really* happening now. Following up on that great short, ( which featured within Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11) George has made ‘Soundtrack to War’ where he returns to the States with a black soldier who claimed parts of Miami were more of a warzone than where he was based in Iraq.( Soundtrack to War review )
Jarhead & Three Kings are two Hollywood takes on Iraq, the latter exposing more of the politics, conflict and complexity involved, and is accompanied by the ‘Soldier’s Pay‘ documentary film by the same director, David Russell, about the occurrence of soldiers in Iraq raiding houses and stealing money or goods they found inside.
Sidenote of interest? On the smallscreen, Al Jazeera, which claims to be the only politically independent television station in the Middle East, now has an estimated 50 million viewers worldwide – comparable to the BBC.