More Real Than Real

Rating: 9/10 (2 May 2009)

You will not find another reviewer who realizes Sen Webb's book, on which the movie is based, uses a different, but similar incident that actually did occur. He denies it, now, but there are early interviews which argue strongly for this point of view. Like so much which occurred in the Clinton administration, papers have disappeared and evidence is now missing. But to say that such things have not or do not occur, is to deny the evidence of Vietnam, Campuchia (Red Cambodia), and North Korea. Women, children, men dressed as women, do fire on troops and do kill people. Cynical foes of American freedom do count on the soft-heartedness of the people who let others fight for them to do their defaming for them.
With that said, the plot is not only believable, but portrayed accurately as we have seen over and over again from the savagery of sectarian extremists in Iraq. Friedkin was prescient.
The battle scenes are every bit as accurate as those of BLACKHAWK DOWN. The courtroom scenes are riveting. Every step of the way, the audience is led to a conclusion that to be an honorable Marine is to be a hopeless puppet of the government.
Even the ending (which we will not give away) forces you to understand the precariousness of the position of people under those with great power. This helplessness, I believe, is what gave most reviewers the uncomfortableness which directed their critiques. Yet it is the very theme of the movie: On an anagogical level, the highest level of allegory, it shouts Acton's Axiom of power and absolute power and the corruption it demands. And no matter which party is in power, the forces of that power make puppets of honor.
The movie has its flaws - the script leaves little for the presiding judge, who is a defacto voice of power, to say, although the editing makes up for it, keeping the courtroom scene ablaze with action.
The catharsis which wrings from the "uncomfortableness" of the film is paramount to its understanding. We feel better, knowing that rough justice has been served.