Cowboys come to Iraq

Rating: 2/10 (25 April 2010)

I watched this film because I had read that it made an honest anti-war statement. I was disappointed. It's a cowboy film, just set in Iraq rather than in the wild west. The narrative revolves within a very self-contained world of three US soldiers. Everything around that world is full of sorts of traps -- bombs and Iraqi insurgents, utterly inhuman, of course. For me, the summary of what the film actually tries to say is given by the scene with the 'suicide bomber': our hero tried his best, really, but he's so sorry, so sorry that he can't help. How agonising it must have been for our valiant sergeant! And how brutal of the heartless Iraqis, to have strapped so many bombs around the waist of a father of four children! John Wayne would have been proud. In addition, the film is full to the brim of Hollywood clichés. Very, very disappointing.