VALLEY OF THE WOLVES: IRAQ ... Diary of a bootleg
A review of a bootleg DVD, July 5, 2007.
VALLEY OF THE WOLVES: IRAQ is a movie I doubt will be released in the States. It is the movie version of a Turkish soap opera about gangsters, and in the film, the main characters go to Iraq. I think they are on the lam or something, but its never explained. These guys run afoul of Billy Zane, a profiteer who fosters conflict amongst the Kurds, the Sunnis, the Turks, whatever, because it keeps commerce moving. He also sees himself as an "agent of God" doing the Lord's work, which I found very interesting as it cast the conflict over there as a conflict between faiths. Its easy to see how it got the rep of being 'anti-american' but you hear that term bandied about whenever any sort of criticism is voiced. It is extremely critical of the American *presence* in Iraq. "Is not the Western Capitalism the boss of you soldiers?" one guy asks.
I don't want to get on the Apologist's bandwagon or anything, but I found this "hotly debated" movie to be rather inoffensive unless you are some kind of psycho reactionary who can't deal with criticism. Plus its little more than a B-movie at heart, lots of silly one-shot-with-a-pistol-kills-a-guy-in-body-armor stuff ... Its basically Rambo from the POV of the Other Guy, and just as silly. Sure, American soldiers are shown in a negative light, but there are narrative steps taken to make it clear that the 'bad' ones are renegades, and there are even a couple 'good' ones on hand to question their (bad) orders. Zane himself is shown as a man motivated by faith but after crossing so many lines in his life, he has lost the way of the Good Man and doesn't know how to stop doing Bad Things. I liked his character. There are suicide bombers in the plot. An Iraqi wedding gets shot up near the beginning and loads of innocent folks are killed by the renegade soldiers. Grieving survivors decide to kill more Americans in revenge, but their actions are denounced by the Islamic holy dudes as fuel for the fire.
It reads kinda like True Lies reads. "The bad guys are Arabs but not all Arabs are bad; see, we have a good one on our side, and the Bad ones are acting alone." Only flip it and replace "Arab" with "American" and you are kinda there.
The Americans are criticized mostly for being meddlers and interlopers and tools of capitalism. Not for being 'evil.' Ultimately the movie seems to argue that if there were no US presence, these troubles would be lessened, but a continued presence just leaves more opportunity for people to exploit the conflict to their own ends --- a capitalist impulse.
Its neither great nor terrible. It *is* intriguing and provocative. Horribly innacurate in terms of military uniform, equipment, strategy, structure and tactics. And all the US dudes die like punks from one stab wound, one bullet wound, etc. About as realistic as a video game, tag-you're-it.
VALLEY OF THE WOLVES: IRAQ is a movie I doubt will be released in the States. It is the movie version of a Turkish soap opera about gangsters, and in the film, the main characters go to Iraq. I think they are on the lam or something, but its never explained. These guys run afoul of Billy Zane, a profiteer who fosters conflict amongst the Kurds, the Sunnis, the Turks, whatever, because it keeps commerce moving. He also sees himself as an "agent of God" doing the Lord's work, which I found very interesting as it cast the conflict over there as a conflict between faiths. Its easy to see how it got the rep of being 'anti-american' but you hear that term bandied about whenever any sort of criticism is voiced. It is extremely critical of the American *presence* in Iraq. "Is not the Western Capitalism the boss of you soldiers?" one guy asks.
I don't want to get on the Apologist's bandwagon or anything, but I found this "hotly debated" movie to be rather inoffensive unless you are some kind of psycho reactionary who can't deal with criticism. Plus its little more than a B-movie at heart, lots of silly one-shot-with-a-pistol-kills-a-guy-in-body-armor stuff ... Its basically Rambo from the POV of the Other Guy, and just as silly. Sure, American soldiers are shown in a negative light, but there are narrative steps taken to make it clear that the 'bad' ones are renegades, and there are even a couple 'good' ones on hand to question their (bad) orders. Zane himself is shown as a man motivated by faith but after crossing so many lines in his life, he has lost the way of the Good Man and doesn't know how to stop doing Bad Things. I liked his character. There are suicide bombers in the plot. An Iraqi wedding gets shot up near the beginning and loads of innocent folks are killed by the renegade soldiers. Grieving survivors decide to kill more Americans in revenge, but their actions are denounced by the Islamic holy dudes as fuel for the fire.
It reads kinda like True Lies reads. "The bad guys are Arabs but not all Arabs are bad; see, we have a good one on our side, and the Bad ones are acting alone." Only flip it and replace "Arab" with "American" and you are kinda there.
The Americans are criticized mostly for being meddlers and interlopers and tools of capitalism. Not for being 'evil.' Ultimately the movie seems to argue that if there were no US presence, these troubles would be lessened, but a continued presence just leaves more opportunity for people to exploit the conflict to their own ends --- a capitalist impulse.
Its neither great nor terrible. It *is* intriguing and provocative. Horribly innacurate in terms of military uniform, equipment, strategy, structure and tactics. And all the US dudes die like punks from one stab wound, one bullet wound, etc. About as realistic as a video game, tag-you're-it.
posted by figurebuilder at 1:00 PM
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