Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2008 > March > 10 > Entry
Capsule review: ‘Full Battle Rattle’
Both an involving you-are-there documentary look at an unfamiliar subject and a question-raising meditation on the way America deals with Iraq, “Full Battle Rattle” follows a group of soldiers into an intense, prolonged training scenario: They are assigned to protect a fictional Iraqi village that was built from scratch in the Mojave Desert and is populated by Iraqi immigrants. The villagers are instructed to role-play with the soldiers, helping them learn how to deal with disputes and crises — a noble goal, although there’s something off-putting about seeing a staff of Americans write “backstories” for men and women who know their former country first-hand. The new soldiers, for their part, try hard to do the right thing but sometimes fall victim to an excess of optimism. The filmmakers are sympathetic to both sides, and viewers come away with a sense of just how easy it is for things to fall apart.
2:30 p.m. Tuesday and 8 p.m. Friday at Alamo Ritz
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: SXSW
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.