No End In Sight

Saw No End In Sight, an angering documentary about the Iraq war. So, as you all know I'm very ignorant of history, geography, and foreign cultures so I feel really unable to comment on the film's accuracy, especially in regards to such recent events. So, I approached this film with some excitement, hoping for dry, emotionless education. Alas, this film has a clear and shamelessly exposed agenda. This is not to say the facts it presents aren't true, just that I have no faith that they're being presented in an accurate way. I can't tell.

The film focuses on the utter lack of management immediately after Saddam was deposed. We hear that Rumsfeld and Cheney and a few other select people were to blame for this lack of clear direction and that with their silence they allowed unsavoury characters to take over in the ensuing chaos. The words 'cabal' or 'agenda' are not actually used, but it's clear what the film is implying.

The film is almost always very clear about how it wants you to feel about any given piece of information. Colin Powell's aide, for example, is interviewed in a shadowy conference room, where he growls out that they had no idea of the situation in Iraq. Later on, once Powell has become a good-guy in this story by opposing Cheney and Rumsfeld, the room is much brighter, the focus tighter. The opinion of a speaker is always telegraphed by how much light there is in the room. Violins weep, trumpets sneer, and the bass rumbles ominously. The point of this film is clearly not to inform but to provoke.

It is incidentally informative however and I do feel more educated than I was pre-film-watching, but the heavy-handed white text on black backgrounds and voice-overs and montages of violence get wearying. I believe the point of this movie was mainly to get people annoyed at Bush and in this aim it succeeds. There are good guys and bad guys and precious little in between and I do not trust such a simple narrative. Don't get me wrong: I don't think that the filmmakers are maliciously hiding or omitting information, but merely that they are very excited about getting their message across and completely sacrifice nuance in the process. This film is exciting and interesting, but it is also propaganda.