Kurtlar Vadisi: Irak

I loved the TV series and I liked this movie. It is provocative and very real also. We finally see the real side of the U.S. and their twisted politics. I love seeing Americans lose. I love Polat Alemdar and 24/7 serious face. I think I will watch the TV series after this movie. 7/10

Turks are not Iranians, their Islamic cinematography has much to be desired. Yet even they, provided sufficient money, can reach Hollywood level entertainment quality, and this movie certainly proves that, so emulating Hollywood, which is typically even more shallow and stupid but shiny and bombastic, is really possible anywhere. What Turks bring to the table is realism, realism in portrayal of american war criminal mentality that plagues the world in the last decades. It is a satisfying antidote to Hollywood stupidity of patriotic shallow stupid pro-Amurican anti everyone else propaganda, and is both technically and morally superior to average CIA propaganda vomit like Black hawk down or Top gun. That being said, it is still a mediocre movie with only its objectivity to elevate it above it.

A commando of Turkish intelligence agents enter Irak to avenge a real life episode in the war where Turkish soldiers were arrested and blindfolded by American troops. A very good action film, condemned unseen by many in the west, it represents at least a change of pace by showing the Muslims as the good guys and the Americans as the bad guys. The movie is actually very strongly against terrorism (the Sheikh in the movie criticizes the terrorists who wants to behead an American journalist, and prevents this from happening) but is also against American ignorant meddling in the Middle East. Most of all, though, Valley of the Wolves is a terrific action movie. And Billy Zane - who has apologized to the American press for appearing in this film - has actually one of the best performances in his career as a real meanie.

Most German newspapers (e.g. www.spiegel.de) said the film is anti-American, anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, and is bad because it deepens the existing "culture clash" even more.

I don't agree. Well, of course the movie is one-sided. With a single exception the Americans in the movie are unscrupulous, dead-heartened and bloodthirsty. They humiliate people of other countries/cultures/religion, don't care about deaths of innocent civilians, maltreat prisoners, etc. Of course most Americans are not like this, but as we know from the pictures and videos from Abu Ghureib and from several other incidents, most of these things did really happen. Why should it be not allowed to show these things in a movie? One scene remind me strongly of holocaust movies: captives are transported on a long journey in a container on a truck. One guard says to the other: they might suffocate in the container because there is no fresh air supply. The truck stops, the (American) guard gets off the truck and fires with an automatic gun hundreds of bullet-holes into the container and creates a bloodbath among the captives. Well, if a holocaust movie shows German Nazis committing terrible things, I don't object too. OK, I don't really know if something like this container incident did really happen in Iraq, but we know that many bad enough things did actually happen.

There are interesting scenes e.g. where a sheik stops some fanatists from executing an American journalist and confronts them with facts why this has nothing to do with Islam, or another one where he discusses with suicide bombers why their plans are wrong.

This movie can help us understand how many Turkish, Arabic or Muslim people feel and think. It is provocative, one-sided, and mixes historic truth with fiction in a questionable way. However isn't that a good starting point for discussing these issues? Sometimes provocation is necessary to get people start talking. First we need to learn to talk about our own feelings. Then we can talk to each other. It's not very healthy if the political correctness keeps telling us to not talk about what we really think and feel just because it could violate other peoples feelings.

I liked this movie.. I know it was a big deal back in Turkey, since it had a soap opera and all but I didn't have any knowledge about that when I watched the movie. If you think this movie is anti-semitic or brings up the issue of raising anti-American spirit, I'd like to remind you the midnight express movie. Americans shall be as well very familiar with the effect of a wrong assumption/judge-mental movie... You see it here in the United States every day, on TV, on movies and etc. I don't understand what is the big deal when another country does the same to the US? We should have the same criterion's for any movie not depending on their nationality but their qualifications. So overall, I suggest this movie not only because it is a perception of another culture also because it is a fun adventure type movie..