Waste of time

The greatest movie ever made..!

A Major Disappointment

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This Iraqui made documentary of the lives and hopes of people in Iraq creates greater awareness, respect and compassion for the people. With a balanced perspective from all over Iraq of different ethnic, religious and economic group perspectives, this portrait instills hope, compassion and admiration for the people. From the marsh Arabs to the northern Kurds, the lives and circumstances of people emerge within the context of the daily challenges of building a democracy in the face of outside threats. It also put into perspective skewed political news commentary that does not reflect what the people of Iraq feel and believe. Every citizen would be well served to see this incredible film.

This should be read before watching this movie, while watching please consider the following: This is an example of American media Iraqi style. This film is a propaganda film. BUT do not condemn this film without watching it because it is an excellent film. This film, which is summed up perfectly by a young man near the end of the film, focuses on the POSITIVE ASPECTS ONLY, of this war. The 150 digital cameras that were distributed to the Iraqi people whom made (part of) this film, were distributed by the army, this is obvious as the time frame of the film coincides with the advancement of the foreign military. This must be remembered during all times in this movie. In some cases the video footage was being shot by a US soldier (rocker scene) and in other cases by European troops (stated by one interviewee), at other times it seemed evident that interviews were being made in the presence of troops, or some foreign person. Also, besides the first section of the film (which i was very surprised to find in there), where anti American sentiment was being conveyed, the majority of the film consists of those who were opposed or oppressed by Saddam, and also, discluding the first section once again, none of the footage was from anywhere or anyone who had been directly affected by the war(as everyone in Iraq is obviously affected). This film did show how a lot of things DID get better as a result of Saddam's overthrow, such as the right to mobility and free speech being restored. My major beef with this films was the headlines...they were completely unnecessary, out of context and uncalled for, and i felt they took away from the integrity of the film. What i did like about this film was that it showed many of the different cultures in Iraq. In order to gain anything from this film I think you must ignore the politics and view this as a film about Iraqi culture. If you go into viewing this film knowing that it is propaganda, and being able to rationally interpret what the people are saying then i think this is actually a pretty cool film, on some of the good that came out of something so terrible. I give it a 7 out of 10.

I was looking forward to watching this movie, and it does contain very interesting perspectives from Iraqis all over the country, not just in major areas.However, as the film went on, and as it seemed to become increasingly more one-sided, I started wondering who had edited the film. To get several hundreds of hours down to just 80 minutes, obviously decisions had to be made.I would have really enjoyed a film that showed how everyday Iraqis felt on all sides of the issues, but with the newspaper headlines in contrast to what people were saying, and with everyone in the movie having the same opinion at the end, I thought it was obvious that the editing was done with a pre-conceived bias.It could have been such a great film.

I had never been motivated to submit a comment before seeing this film and reading the IMDb comments about it. The movie portrayed such a different attitude within Iraq than I expected that I could hardly wait to see what others had to say about it. The first thing I noticed in reading the comments was how some used their "comment" as a forum to attack "the left" rather than discuss the merits of the film. Those from the left suggested that this film may only show one side of the story.Sitting here in the USA, I have been frustrated by being unable to know what the real story is inside Iraq, so I was anxious to see this film. As others have said, it is definitely worth watching. It is an intimate, revealing and touching portrait of Iraqis and what it is like to live in Iraq. However, as I watched the film I couldn't help wondering who had made it and how accurate it is.While it is suggested or implied that all of the footage contained in the film was shot by private Iraqi citizens, this is not actually the case. The film also includes archival footage of torture and genocide perpetrated by Saddam Hussein and his regime. In addition, newspaper headlines are shown at different times during the film that appear to be designed to show how different the newspaper accounts were from what the film is showing. I'm not saying that any of this was inaccurate but it added subjectivity to the film that went beyond Iraqis expressing their views "in their own words" and "telling their own story" as the promo material suggests. To me this "editorializing" suggested and revealed a specific bias in the film.Furthermore, promotional material for the film states that "the producers of Voices of Iraq distributed over 150 digital video cameras across the entire country to enable everyday people - mothers, children, teachers, sheiks and even insurgents - to document their lives and their hopes amidst the upheaval of a nation being born." This is not really accurate. While the film does contain video footage of mothers, children, teachers and sheiks that was shot for the film, as stated, the video footage of "insurgents" was not shot for the film but shot by the insurgents themselves for their own purposes, whatever those may have been. Furthermore, the insurgent footage was not an interview at all but rather footage only of someone's hands wiring a bomb. Contrary to what was advertised, no information or opinion from the insurgent perspective was included in the film at all. Regardless of whether it is right or wrong, this is a significant perspective but one that was not addressed in the film and is not often addressed in Western media.All in all, I thought the movie was interesting and informative but couldn't help wondering what was contained in the 400 hours of footage that were left on the cutting room floor. As someone else said, I suggest that you watch the movie, do your own research and draw your own conclusions. For a different perspective on this situation watch "Control Room."