Baghdad ER - An HBO Documentary Film
by John Alpert
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DVD details
Director: John AlpertBrand: HBO Home Video
Producer: John Alpert
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Published), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Published), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 64 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-08-29
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: HBO Home Video
DVD Reviews of Baghdad ER - An HBO Documentary Film
DVD Review: Blood and Dirt
Summary: 3 Stars
<div class=Section1> <em>Baghdad ER</em> brings home to Americans some of the reality of suffering, sacrifice and death in a Combat Support Hospital in Iraq. The blood, pain, physical and psychological suffering endured by US soldiers, as well as some of the psychic and emotional price paid by military caregivers is demonstrated in a low-key hour-long documentary. There are no lengthy interviews here, communication both in and out of the ER is in sound bites. The American soldiers of <em>Baghdad ER</em> are brave, stoic, well-meaning victims. The film's very first casualty is described as "shot by a sniper while handing out candy to Iraqi children." Another injured soldier explains that when attacked "We were fucking dropping chow off to some guys." At one point in the film, a mortar attack hits a PX and "it caught some soldiers off guard who were just trying to use the PX to buy a hamburger." These are average Joes, guys you could imagine on checkpoint duty in Mahmudiya, or grilling chicken wings. On the other hand, on the in-patient floor "down at one end are the Americans and at the other end are the Iraqis. In the middle are the bad guys," who include "these dipshits strapping explosives onto their bodies." The doctors of the ER see a "never-ending string of this shit. These assholes with these IEDs." Lacking American valour the bad guys apparently eschew supersonic aircraft and armored vehicles in favor of the IED. IEDs figure prominently in<em> Baghdad ER</em>. "There's going to be a Marine coming in from Fallujah. One Marine hit with a gunshot wound IED to the chest." While of Fallujah's Marine artillery-flattened and white phosphorous-burnt blocks the viewer hears nothing more here but must look to <em>Occupation: Dreamland</em>, we do learn that IEDs are the "primary cause of death and injury in Iraq," where at the time of the film's editing 2,346 American soldiers have died. The Lancet, UN and other bodies who debate whether the American air war has caused Iraqi deaths numbering closer to 40,000 or 200,000 are not mentioned here. What we see is the mess made by IEDs. A doctor informs a wounded soldier that "Iraq's dirty, so we don't make any incisions on you guys unless we have to, so we'll get you to Germany." What, exactly, is meant by "Iraq's dirty" is never clarified. Iraq is simply a dirty place, where IEDs threaten Americans. The danger is completely without a framework, and no evidence is presented to supply context for viewers interested in analysis. One doctor opines: "I hate this stupid war. I think it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I don't think it's any more intelligent than any other war that's ever been fought." He goes on to add, "But I'll always hold this period of my life very dear to my heart, because I've had a chance to make a difference." And the doctors do indeed, apparently make a difference. A US soldier on patrol commends American medical personnel: "I think the biggest thing about the CSH: because they're there, it enables us to do our job, without fear, because we know if we do get injured, there's a good chance we're still going to survive it." The job he's doing involves stopping Iraqi civilian drivers at gunpoint: "right now we're going to stop his vehicle. It's past curfew. He's not allowed to be out." Of a roadside Iraqi: "We'll make sure he ain't got no cellphone in his hand." No one begins to ask on camera what young American soldiers are doing imposing a curfew on the residents of Baghdad, begins to marvel at the gall of 21-year-old Kansans to deny Iraqis the use of cellphones. The curfew, the war, the suffering all exist in a moment outside time - as there is no past there is little evidence of thought given to the future. Teleology, pointedly Christian, is freighted with the task of explaining all. Major Harnish, General Surgeon: "This war and the number of lives it's affecting is just unbelievable. I have to think that the people in this country are in a better place for it, or will be in a better place for it - I have to believe that because, uh, otherwise this is just sheer madness. A chaplain prays "Lord, you brought him to us, we did everything we could to save his life, but it was not up to us. Lord, we pray that his life, and even his death, might be used to hasten peace, and end this terrible war." In <em>Baghdad ER</em> there is a lot of prayer. A dog-eared copy of the New Testament is shown on a bedside table. It is always white Christian prayer, including over those who apparently would have preferred not to have been prayed over. Two doctors converse over a soldier's corpse: "Was he Catholic, do you know?" "He is 'no religious preference,' sir." "I see." "So we won't do any uh, uh." "Last rites or anything." "Right. We'll offer just a prayer for his life, and, uh..." "I'll pray with you." And so with a large American flag on the wall behind them the two soldiers pray over the recently deceased, "Oh Lord we pray that his life, and his death, would hasten the cause of peace, and that this senseless war, this violence here, would end." Poignant strings rise on the soundtrack. There is a lot of poignancy on the soundtrack of <em>Baghdad ER</em>, and on the screen are brave, stoic, well-meaning people. These are individuals caught up in a senseless war. They have no individual agency, and hold no responsibility for anything but doing their militarily-defined job in a professional manner. That these clean-cut well-fed medical personnel just happen to also be soldiers involved in the occupation of a country unlawfully invaded by the world's only superpower on the basis of the flimsiest of lies is beside the point. These are brave, decent, caring men and women. Cue music. Fade. </div>
Description of Baghdad ER - An HBO Documentary Film
BAGHDAD ER - DVD MovieHBO's unflinching Baghdad ER makes programs like Grey's Anatomy and House look like kiddie cartoons. Directed by Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill, the fly-on-the wall documentary tracks the days and nights of the 86th Combat Support Hospital. Located in Baghdad's Green Zone, the CSH is the Army?s premier medical facility in Iraq. It's a busy place. Most of the injuries--almost 18,000 from 2003-2005--are due to IEDs (improvised explosive devices). Patients with minor problems are patched up and sent on their way. More severe cases are medevaced to Germany or the States. Still others won't make it. Then there are those who lose limbs. It isn't an uncommon occurrence, and the film features discomfiting moments concerning those individuals (the sequences may be brief, but they're undeniably disturbing). But all is not trauma and tears. Alpert and O'Neill also catch the hard-working staff during rare moments of levity: playing the saxophone, smoking cigars, and telling bad jokes. As Captain Merritt Pember accedes, "There's a lot of stuff we laugh about and probably shouldn't--it helps keep us sane." According to the introductory text, "Ninety percent of American soldiers wounded in Iraq survive. This is the highest rate of war survivors in US History." Baghdad ER brings that impressive statistic to indelible life. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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