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The author presents a criticism of the film "American Sniper" directed by Clint Eastwood. She discusses the depiction of former SEAL Chris Kyle during and after his tours of duty during the Iraq War, the question of violence in motion pictures, and how war films fit into the larger set of adventure films.

This article engages the complex intermingling of imagery, ideology and history as it emerges within the sub-genre we might describe as the 'post-9/11 Iraq War Film'. Taking as my focus Katheryn Bigelow's Hurt Locker and Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, I ask, first, why these films garnered large audiences (in contrast to the genre as a whole) and why, moreover, American Sniper became such a mega-hit. In narrowing my examination to these two films, I propose to examine the interplay of subjectivity and the cinematic screen, asking what position these films place the spectator in and how we might understand this in terms of screen history and violence in general as well as the specificity of the war and its visual frame in particular. Further issues that arise in the juxtaposition of these two films include: the issue of gender (as it applies to the representation of both Iraqi and American protagonists and to both films directors: Hurt Locker was the first film directed by a woman to garner an Academy Award); issues arising out of the long relationship between the camera and the gun historically, and today, as it has found its most deadly incarnation in the military drone, and, finally, the broader contours of official discourse as it is solidified (or not) within these films and the sub-genre as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including films produced in Iraq, Iraq media culture, and moving-image culture regarding Iraq.

During the 1950-70s, film production in Iraq was relatively prolific. Private industry eventually gave way to nationalization under Ba'th Party rule. Not unlike Iraqi cinema of the colonial era, most post-independence Iraqi cinema had the ideological aim of propping up the new regime while supplying light entertainment to the populace. A minor auteur cinema did develop, which produced a small number of critical independent films, but the movement was short-lived. The bulk of quality film production in Iraq occurred during the period of nationalization. This development eventually led to the establishment of a film school in Baghdad. Since the Iran-Iraq War, national film production in Iraq effectively ended. This is not to say that films publicized as 'Iraqi' have not been produced in recent years; on the contrary, a small but noteworthy number of 'Iraqi' films have been made, primarily for international distribution, largely by Iraqi ex-patriots to (and from) Europe and with financial support from private foreign sources. This article discusses two such films, Zaman: The Man from the Reeds (Alwan, 2003), and Ahlaam (al-Daradji, 2006), comparing and contrasting their differing but overlapping strategies, which evidence the suffering of Iraqis living under conditions of war and violence. These strategies at the same time in varying ways distract or distort attention from the real determinants of those conditions. By extension the article draws critical connections between the aims and orientations of new 'Iraqi' cinema and the hasbara cultural initiatives of contemporary Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documentary films employing soldier-generated material were a popular phenomenon during the War in Iraq, as film-makers utilized soldier-captured footage and narration in their films. One of the most successful was Deborah Scranton’sThe War Tapes(2006). Notably, Scranton gave the soldiers cameras, and offered instructions through technology while the soldier-videographers were deployed, a technique she called a ‘virtual embed.’ Similar films includedBad Voodoo’s War(2008),Combat Diary(2006) andThis is War(2007). A central production issue was that the directors lacked access to the events as they happened because they took place on a dangerous battlefield. This paper will explore how soldier-filmed material is implemented in these documentary films. I advance the term ‘Drone Documentary’ as a conceptual analogy to refer both to the aesthetic style of the long-range surveillance camera and to the agentless operative gathering images and intelligence on behalf of a distanced, yet powerful controller. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks the American film industry took a while to react to the Islamist threat at home and abroad. From 2005, however, Hollywood responded to the threat to the homeland and the War on Terror “over there” in Iraq and Afghanistan in a variety of ways. This article examines the nature of that response and whether it evinces, as critics allege, that the American film industry reflects and shapes a capitalist and imperialist agenda. More particularly, by evaluating the cinematic treatment of both the Iraq war and the problem of surveillance, rendition, and homeland security, the analysis explores what this distinctive on-screen genre tells about how the U.S. cultural mainstream has dealt with the challenge global jihadism poses to American values. The analysis suggests that post-9/11 movie making, while sometimes bleak and often clichéd, is cognizant of the gray area morality inherent in fighting the “War on Terror,” and is still thus able to offer some possibilities for sophisticated reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The essay explores how the notions of anatopism, globalization, and the trauma of battle are presented in depictions of the Iraq War in both motion pictures and literature. It focuses particularly on the book "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright, but also considers the film "The Hurt Locker" by Kathryn Bigelow.

Mediatization is a long-term influential process which affects all social and cultural fields, as well as the war. The aim of this paper is to find out whether this process is reflected in the war film. To that end, first of all we characterized the mediatisation of the Iraq war. Then, we conducted a content analysis of the films that form the Iraq war cycle. In the case of Redacted, we go depth with a more exhaustive content analysis and complete it with a segmentation of the narrative structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a rhetorical approach to documentary, this article examines the narrative and aesthetic constructs of policy documentaries about the Iraq War. Focusing on two high-profile films, No End in Sight and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, the article outlines how these documentaries work to extenuate American transgressions during the occupation by invoking a superficial gothic rhetoric. Within this rhetoric, the neo-conservatives of the Bush administration are cast as shadowy and conspiratorial forces who have corrupted American values. Alternatively, policy-makers and military personnel are cast as virtuous representatives of American democracy and emerge as innocent victims of a seemingly monstrous administration. By relying on this simplistic good and evil construct, which ironically mirrors the rhetoric of Bush administration's War on Terror, and by ignoring outright the question of the war's legitimacy, these films ultimately reaffirm the virtues of the very institutions which oversee American war and occupation. The Iraq War is then memorialised as a catastrophe created by corrupt neo-conservatives and one which does not merit deeper reflection on the use of war as a tool of US foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article critiques the documentary film "Soldiers of Conscience" directed by Catherine Ryan and Gary Weinberg which focuses on the Iraqi War. Topics discussed include the directors' claim that the movie's focus is not the situation in Iraq but how it portrays human nature and war, the author's assertion that the documentary is attempting to portray a soldier who refuses to fight as a hero and the film as a tool for criticizing U.S. foreign policy.

A critique is presented of the Western film remake "3:10 to Yuma" directed by James Mangold, focusing on the relation of the 2007 film to events such as the U.S.'s invasion of Iraq, the war on terror, and President George W. Bush. Themes of heroism, courage, and anti-war political views are discussed, as well as the 1957 film version's director Delmer Daves and the social aspects of Western films and myths.

An interview with documentary filmmaker and editor Steve James is presented, focusing on his work with the documentary film "The War Tapes." He comments that the use of soldiers to film their experiences in the Iraq War was a contributing factor in his decision to be involved in editing the documentary. He also discusses how his working relationship with the subjects in this film differed from his experiences in the documentaries "Stevie" and "Hoop Dreams."

The sources cited within this issue are presented including "The Performance of Politics: Obama's Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power," by J Alexander, "A Toxic Genre: The Iraq War Films," by M. Barker and "The Daily Show and Rhetoric: Arguments, Issues and Strategies," edited by T Goodnow.