Control Room (2004)
A few weeks ago, some pictures started
popping into the popular American consciousness. These
were pictures of Middle Eastern men and women being
dehumanized, degraded and victimized, often sexually,
by American soldiers in an Iraqi prison. The public
outcry was astounding. Americans expressed disgust
and outrage over the treatment of the captives. To
this I say: What a bunch of fucking hypocrites. HELLO!
It's a fucking war! Did you think we were going to
send over our American military (also known as America's
teenage leftovers) and they were going to be on their
best behavior? Again - we are at war here people!
Terrorizing, humiliating and abusing prisoners is
exactly what happens in a fucking war. Dumbasses.
"Control Room" is an incredibly
biased and fascist film, a purported documentary it
is in actually an unamerican diatribe, that does everything
in its remarkably limp power to try and make the American
military and President Bush look bad. The film is
supposedly a "documentary" about Al Jazeera, the Iraqi
TV news network, sort of the Middle-Eastern CNN, and
how the recent military invasion in that country has
affected them.
Instead the film loves to focus
on the American military communications organizations
and show just how they use, abuse and manipulate the
media to present their point of view in a positive
light. In other words, the film is about how the American
military and the Bush administration uses propaganda
to make themselves look good. The documentary decries
such actions and repeatedly points out obvious manipulations
made by the military liaisons to the media to skew
the news from Iraqi. Again, to this I say: HELLO!
It's a fucking war! The use of propaganda in wartime
is about as likely as the use of guns. No one with
an IQ over 20 is unaware that we are engaged in propaganda
during wartime.
It's not that I'm a big Bush supporter
(I hate his fucking guts, actually) or that I'm a
big military supporter (although I do feel sorry for
these teenagers who have no other option for employment
other than making fries at McDonald's or joining the
military). It's just that this film is the very propaganda
it decries. To see the "employees" of Al Jazeera act
shocked and outraged by the American military's manipulation
of the news is laughable. They are either insanely
ignorant or they are trying to incite bad feelings
towards America and its citizens by portraying faux
shock and outrage. These people cannot be so naive
as to truly be surprised, they spent several years
living under Saddam's evil hand for goodness sake,
so the only option to consider here is that they must
be engaged in reverse propaganda.
What is funny, or perhaps odd, is
that the true star of "Control Room" turns out to
be American military member, Lt. Josh Rushing, who
runs CentCom, the command center for the media in
American-occupied Iraq. Rushing does not become the
star because he is the only American in the film,
but because he is the only one who comes across as
intelligent and human. His personal reflection at
seeing images of war are poignant and humane. It's
impossible to see this film and not like the guy and
he is supposed to be the fucking villain.
The Iraqis here are nowhere near
as likeable or as smart as Rushing. The best of these
is a transplanted, seemingly British, reporter for
Al Jazeera who speaks in circles as he tries to interrogate
Rushing under the pretense that he is trying to help
him understand the Iraqis. We never really know who
this guy is or why he is in Iraq or what motivates
him. Meanwhile, the most wonderfully insane and comical
character in the film is Samir Khader, an Al Jazeera
bigwig who reminds one of Martin Short's businessman
being interrogated on "60 Minutes" in a spoof from
"SNL" in the 80's. ("I know that. Don't you think
I know that?") Khader smokes incessantly as he always
has a cigarette dangling from the lips of his atrociously
ugly, pineapple pock-marked face. He is a real idiot,
the kind of guy who spends one minute telling us how
awful America is and the next saying he will send
his children to school in the states, no matter what
the cost.
"Control Room" is the worst kind
of documentary, a biased and sophomoric film that
enlightens only the idiotic and naive. It repeatedly
makes the same pointless points over and over and
expects you to react with the same righteous indignation
that it simulates throughout its thankfully short
running time.
Notes:
In English and Arabic with English
subtitles.
Directed by Jehane Noujaim.
The film debuted at Sundance and
already seemed dated by its arthouse release in May
of 2004.
Viewed at a press sneak at the Dobie
theater in June 2004.
