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posted Friday, August 1, 2008 - Volume 36 Issue 31 |
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Watching Full Battle |
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| Watching Full Battle |
by Scott Rice, SGN reviewer
Rattle, the award winning documentary directed by Tony Gerber and Jesse
Moss, was the strangest cinematic experience I've had in some time. It forced
me to reconsider everything I thought I knew about the reality of war.
The film documents the U.S. Army's billion dollar 100 square
mile virtual Iraq built in the Mohave Desert forty miles from Barstow,
California. The training complex includes 13 villages, two news networks, a
military support city of 15,000 and employs hundreds of Iraqi American actors.
The narrative follows Lt. Col. Robert McLaughlin and the battalion he commands
as they work to bring peace and stability to the ersatz Iraqi village of Medina
Wasl.
The scripted scenarios are written and produced by a team of
military and civilian planners aptly named The Lizard Team. The Lizard Team
sits around a tidy conference table deciding the fate of the players like a
panel of petty Greek gods, only less interesting. The scenarios consist of
loose storylines designed to test the soldiers and evaluate their unscripted
responses. Fiction overlaps reality as the battalion experiences stages of
conflict that eerily mimic past events in Iraq: Occupation, insurgency,
counter-insurgency, collateral damage, civil war, and reconstruction. The main
difference between the real conflict in Iraq and the simulated conflict in the
California desert is in the scenes depicting the withdrawal of military forces
amid the chaos of a failed mission. Anyone care to place bets how the real
thing plays out?
The Iraqi American players receive their character's
identities from The Lizard Team on sheets of paper listing ethnic and religious
background and a brief bio. Bassam Kalasho plays the Deputy Mayor of Medina
Wasl, a Shiite in a predominantly Sunni town. In a funny moment he laments the
fact that he's been the Deputy Mayor for three years without moving up to
Mayor. The scene seems even weirder when you see him later in his real life as
a liquor store clerk in San Diego. The game Iraqi actors work hard (not
surprising since many are waiting for word about their immigration status) but
in the end seem like an odd iteration of Saturday Night Live's Not Ready for
Prime Time Players.
Insurgents are portrayed by American soldiers, many of whom
have returned from the real war. They take on the bad guy roles with relish and
vigor, eventually dealing a devastating blow to the battalion resulting in many
faux causalities and fake deaths. Watching the American soldiers getting into
character made me consider how choosing sides in a conflict with a vague enemy
and an undefined measure of victory can be a difficult and somewhat arbitrary
proposition.
Near the end of the operation, the battalion gets the news
that they'll soon be heading to Iraq. For Sgt. Paul Green, this will be his
third tour of duty. His reaction brings the fictional conflict into sharp
perspective as he calls his wife to tell her he'll be returning to Iraq for a
third time. Moments like this are what make Full
Battle Rattle a powerful documentary. As fiction and reality play off one
another it's like looking at a mirror submerged in flowing water. This
documentary is unlike any film I've ever seen and I could go on writing about
it for twenty more pages. But don't worry, I won't.
In the final act, the players withdraw from the simulation.
We follow the Iraqi American actors and the soldiers back to their real lives.
The actors return to mundane lives in San Diego dreaming of an Iraq that
doesn't exist anymore. The soldiers return to Fort Bliss and, in scenes that
made me weep, spend time with their families before going off to war.
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