Live from Baghdad

Live From Baghdad marks the triumphant return of one of the most harsh individuals in show business today: Michael Keaton. He is extremely hard boiled in this role and the supporting cast of Helena Bonham-Carter, Lili Taylor, David Suchet and Bruce McGill are a force to be reckoned with. The end when the war begins is one of the most realistic war scenes I've seen in some time, it really looks like you're in the room watching the battle unfold with them. I hope this will be a kick start for Keaton to get back into making new movies because he has not lost a step in his acting ability. But you all should see for yourself, if any of you get HBO I suggest you watch this the next time its on.

Excellent teleplay, exemplary performances. Riveting and thought-provoking. A top-notch production all around.

Beyond what else has been said, LIVE FROM BAGHDAD hails those who, as late as 1991, stood up for the freedom of the press, the battles waged, the compromises made, their failures as well as their successes. Bush the elder had ordered the press out of Baghdad, but failed, as this teleplay depicts. When Bush the younger reentered Iraq, he offered the press corps a leash instead, which most agencies snapped up.

LIVE FROM BAGHDAD, a brilliant bit of reporting done by an extraordinary CNN team, but also a subtle homage to those who help preserve one of the most vital proponents of liberty -- a free press.

The appeal of this movie is that it makes you feel the fear, excitement, and tension that the journalists covering the Gulf War had to have felt. There are many scenes that accomplish this very well, including the scenes where the journalists are in Kuwait investigating stories of Iraqi soldiers taking babies from incubators and leaving them for dead. The interview scene with Hussein is very well done; you can imagine the intimidation Wiener felt when he had to clip a microphone on Hussein's tie.

However, nothing in the movie brings out these emotions in the audience like the shots of the skies of Baghdad illuminated with bombs and anti-aircraft fire. The bravery shown by the journalists who covered this from their hotel room instead of taking shelter is amazing to me to this day, and the movie really communicates a sense of how they must have felt.

I probably wouldn't have been anywhere near Baghdad had I been in their shoes, but now I know how they must have felt.

'Live from Baghdad' is a political movie in the sense that it asks very tough questions; however, its center lies not in politics but in people. It relates the story of Robert Wiener and his CNN team as they struggle to report the news from Baghdad in the six month antebellum period leading up to the Persian Gulf War of 1991. The team battles with tough Iraqi censorship, enormous political tension, and the reality of impending war. While still presenting the historical events of the time, Baghdad focuses on interpersonal relationships and intrapersonal struggles. Questions over the role of the media emanate from the various stories and struggles that the CNN team faces. The issues of censorship and propaganda, for example, plague the CNN team and their coverage. The use of the media as a diplomatic pawn befalls Wiener and his crew several times in the film. In many senses Baghdad is a media mood ring: different situations in the movie stress and display the various characteristics of the press from a governmental tool to diplomatic connection.

The acting in this movie is superb. Keaton is a very strong actor in this film and in every sense epitomizes the gung-ho, balls-out attitude of the real Robert Wiener. In stark contrast, David Suchet, as Naji Al-Hadithi, presents the exquisiteness of his character with a sense of calculation and deliberation. He very much captures a cultured, borderline-aristocratic dignity that an Iraqi official in Saddam Hussein's cabinet might hold.

The particular strength of this movie is not in the plot, the production or the characters, however--and in fact none of these really stand out as excellent--but in the broad questions it raises. At the heart of this film is the implied question as to the role of the media. To what extent should we censor? How much should we analyze? What does the public have the right to now and how far can the press go to get it? 'Live from Baghdad' is an incredible movie in the sense that it can raise these questions from an emotional and factual base.

I give this movie an 8 out of 10 for its generally entertaining plot and tough press-related questions.

This film is a well-written and acted live-action documentary of Robert Wiener's experiences working as a CNN correspondent in Baghdad during the Gulf War. Overall, it is pretty good. The speeches all resonate, and it is good to see some of the atrocities committed by Saddam's army brought to light again; revisionist Americans love to paint the Gulf War as a "quest for oil", just as they love to browbeat America for using the atomic bomb during WWII. Obviously there are many sides to any story, and for the most part "Live from Baghdad" does a good job of showing what was really happening in Iraq, along with serving the Americans an occasional slice of humble pie for their brashness and xenophobia.

Interestingly, the weakest part of the movie is the director. Mick Jackson has a lot of experience (I'm amazed to find out that he directed Steve Martin's "L.A. Story"), but his work here falls into two distinct categories: workmanlike and/or irritating. The workmanlike scenes aren't so bothersome. But occasionally he'll pull a trick out of his hat, and it's always hackneyed - particularly his fascination with long shots of people staring. This is one of those art house things that you just have to suffer through, along with the excessively talky relationship between Wiener and Ingrid. It is a distinctly American conceit, as seen in such dreck as "Pearl Harbor", to take something as colossal as a war and use it as a backdrop for a hamfisted love story. I also found it a little unsettling that the reporters were laughing and slapping each other on the back after the bombing, while outside their relatively safe hotel people were picking their loved ones out of the rubble.

It is definitely a gigantic commercial for CNN, but you know that going in. The guy worked for CNN. If you watch a documentary about Colonel Sanders, you have to expect some fried chicken.

Some people have dismissed the film as propaganda; I must point out that while it does paint our involvement in the Gulf War in a positive light, it makes no reference to the modern situation except to state that Saddam Hussein is still in power. If you were against the war, then of course there's no way you will like this film. But if you were against it without knowing anything about it except some friend of yours said "we're doing it for oil!", then you should do quite a bit of research ... and this film is as good a place as any to start.