Live from Baghdad
by Mick Jackson
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DVD details
Actor: Helena Bonham Carter, Lili Taylor, Michael KeatonDirector: Mick Jackson
Brand: HBO Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-06-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: HBO Video
Product features:
- DVD Details: Actors: Michael Keaton, Helena Bonham Carter, Joshua Leonard, Lili Taylor, David Suchet
- Directors: Mick Jackson
- Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC. Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1; Number of discs: 1; Studio: HBO Video
- DVD Release Date: June 24, 2003 ; Run Time: 108 minutes
DVD Reviews of Live from Baghdad
DVD Review: Behind the scenes of round one
Summary: 4 Stars
I remember well the evening Operation Desert Shield morphed into Desert Storm. Everyone knew the invasion of Iraq would come soon after Saddam Hussein failed to meet the January deadline set by President Bush. What we didn't know for sure was how soon that attack would take place. Hours after the deadline passed, American military forces unleashed a maelstrom of destruction on Iraq. Cruise missiles and bombers soared over Baghdad with impunity, and the only news network there to capture it all live was CNN. It's difficult to imagine now, but Ted Turner's cable news network was essentially an unknown entity in 1991. Most, if not all, of the on-air personnel were largely unfamiliar to the American viewer. You might watch CNN if you stumbled over it on a pass through the cable channels and saw something interesting, but you simply did not make a habit out of watching the channel regularly. Nowadays, we have a host of cable news networks drawing viewers away from ABC, NBC, and CBS in droves. The coverage provided by CNN of those bombing runs in Baghdad thirteen years ago is primarily responsible for the success of pay cable news.
"Live From Baghdad," a made for HBO film, revisits the events that led up to that epochal moment in television news history. CNN producer Robert Wiener (Michael Keaton) jumps all over the Iraq assignment at the channel's Atlanta headquarters, figuring that events there will soon heat up to a fever pitch and thus create career making opportunities. He brings in the brash Ingrid Formanek (Helena Bonham Carter), Judy Parker (Lili Taylor), and cameraman Mark Biello (Joshua Leonard) to assist him in digging up the dirt in Baghdad. The trip over to Iraq exhausts these pampered journalists, as does the drudgery of setting up shop. We see the intrepid reporters hiring a translator, securing lodgings, finding bugs in their hotel room, and attempting to set up contacts with the notorious Ministry of Information. As we soon learn, working as an American journalist overseas is not an easy job. First, you have to live as high on the hog as you can. After all, you're an American; no one can expect you to live in a hovel. Second, transmitting a story from a country on the brink of war is headache inducing. Third, the journalistic field is dog eat dog; if you're not working on a story every day, not finding an angle everyone else isn't working on, you may as well throw in the towel.
Well, Wiener and his associates overcome most of these difficulties. Bob even strikes up a friendship with Naji Al-Nadithi, the Iraqi in charge of dealing with foreign correspondents. Both Al-Nadithi and Wiener profess to want peace, but larger issues keep getting in the way. For example, the CNN crew convinces the Iraqi government to let them into Kuwait to cover the now infamous incubator story. Unfortunately, the reporters become the story when accusations arise that Hussein's government is using them to propagate its own version of events. A few stories dealing with American workers trapped in Iraq, and the problems at the American embassy, act as filler for the big finale. As the deadline for invasion nears, the other news agencies leave the country, but Wiener and a few members of his crew decide to stick it out. Joining them are three now famous individuals: Bernard Shaw, Peter Arnett, and John Holliman. Thanks to Wiener's deft handling of the Iraqis (or is it the other way around?), the reporters witness the air strikes raining down on Baghdad outside of their hotel room window and manage to transmit video and audio transmissions to Atlanta via a special communications gizmo. Thus CNN scooped the other networks and the rest, as they say, is history.
I generally liked "Live From Baghdad." Keaton and Bonham Carter do a good job with their characters, as does David Suchet as Al-Nadithi. It's always nice to see the beautiful Lili Taylor in another movie. The film portrays Peter Arnett (played by Bruce McGill) as a devil may care boozehound, a depiction that provides a few humorous scenes. Too, the special effects used to recreate the air strikes are quite frightening. Regrettably, I have a few problems with the film. My opinion of the American media systems is at an all time low, and has been for many years. I think the emphasis on churning out new stories at breakneck speed contributes to many problems, the least of which is sloppy and superficial reporting. We see that here with the incubator story. Moreover, and probably most important, is how the film attempts to portray these reporters as heroes. C'mon folks! They sat in a hotel room and stuck a camera out the window. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have that job any day compared to flying the planes over Baghdad or serving as a soldier in the ground invasion that followed the air war. The media make themselves out to be heroes because anyone else who can prove otherwise never gets airtime.
Still, I did enjoy the movie and would watch it again. HBO discs rarely offer anything in the way of extras, but this DVD does. You get cast and crew biographies and a commentary track from director Mick Jackson. I haven't subscribed to HBO for many years now, so I never heard about this film until I stumbled over it quite by accident a few months ago. I think the irony of its release date, coinciding with the second invasion of Iraq by the younger Bush in 2002, is more than amusing. I'm surprised the movie didn't engage in blatant, far left propaganda but tried to depict both sides of the conflict. Perhaps I'm wrong, and if so you should watch the movie and judge for yourself. You'll probably like it.
Description of Live from Baghdad
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