Severe Clear (2010)

The Coalition's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 must surely be the biggest foreign policy error in the 21st century. We know now that it was on a false premise, and that Saddam's regime posed little threat to its neighbours while usefully keeping Iraq's ethnic and religious divisions in check. The legacy of the invasion is beyond tragedy for the countless millions of people across the world since affected by the violence that has ensued. Severe Clear is not the best account of the invasion and views of the soldiers mounting it, but it's certainly interesting and sheds useful light on it.In contrast to the review currently on the front page of IMDb's entry for this documentary, Severe Clear does not seek to uphold the lie that the invasion was based on. Sure, the beginning records Lt Scottie's astonishing belief that Saddam had been behind 9/11 and therefore needed to be toppled. However, in the epilogue, Lt Scottie adds his shock at the fact that WMDs were not found and thus that the premise was false. The documentary also includes a montage of the post- invasion disorder against audio of Donald Rumsfeld dismissing media reports of chaos, surely suggesting Lt Scottie's disagreement with the Bush administration's version of events. But that's what makes the documentary interesting: it's based on the narrator's journal entries and footage as he experiences them, chronologically. So while he starts off super-patriotic, by the end he's disillusioned, he questions whether the invasion was the right thing to do, and he's under little doubt about the need for a heavy US presence amid serious challenges in the years ahead.More broadly, the documentary has its strengths and weaknesses. Using UK news commentary to provide context was effective I thought, both in providing an 'international' (i.e. not US) voice and because, rather surprisingly, the USMC were getting their news from the BBC World Service (!). The footage is graphic, arguably too graphic, with several corpses badly mutilated by shellfire shown.I was also not keen on Lt Scottie's narration, which lacked originality (e.g. his complaints about the US Navy's food) or spirit. I appreciate the documentary's budget was doubtless tight, but I think they should have looked at getting an actor to read the narration.In all though, an interesting documentary which makes all the more painful viewing in light of subsequent events.

A by the numbers documentary of the Iraq war. Now that everyone and their brother can bring a camera down there, there is a flood of available material. Thus we have a ton of documentaries about the two wars.This is not one of the better ones. It lacks any real sense of critical thinking and falls victim to flag-waving more than anything else but this is not the films main problem.The by far largest problem of the documentary is the protagonist Scotti. He's a pseudo-intellectual who narrates the documentary and through the course of the movie he will have said pretty much every blatantly stolen stereotypical thing someone can say about war. He tries really hard to sound both like a "cool soldier" and a guy who's really smart but fails miserably on both counts. This is of course a problem since the documentary stops being about the war and starts being about Scotti. And nobody loves Mike Scotti more than Mike Scotti.

"Here's the truth about being a marine you won't find on the local news." Filmed in 2003 on his way from Afghanastan to Iraq to begin the march toward Baghdad during "Operation Iraqi Freedom", Lt. Mike Scotti of the Marine Corps shows the reality of what they went through. This is definitely the most accurate and truthful account of what the soldiers went through. From saying why they fight, what they feel, and what life is like. This is a documentary that is an absolute must see and the type that people will either love or hate, depending on their thoughts on the war. I say that based on the reviews that I have read of this movie and that makes me laugh because this is a soldiers home movie...not political at all but peoples opinions are so extreme on this that it becomes something that it's not intended to be. It shows both the good and bad. Iraqis cheering and wanting us out. The reason that I think people are giving this bad reviews is because the soldiers that are fighting are defending what they are doing and saying why they are there. Never once bad mouthing the president, although Rumsfeld gets a dig. Regardless of how you feel about the war this is a movie that needs to be watched. Overall, an absolutely captivating documentary that every American should watch. Like Tom Brokaw said "It's OK to be against the war, but never OK to be against the soldiers." This movie is the perfect example of that. I give it an A+ Would I watch again? - I would, and would show this to people.

As stated in Severe Clear or This Is War, a grunt does not need to know why they fight but will go anywhere their President sends them.... .....but did not that very same grunt have to ask why they would "volunteer" to join the military? Could it be that the grunt was "forced" into the military because they could not afford an education, health care or find a decent paying job?The truth of the invasion of Iraq is that it was sold to the public on a big lie yet Severe Clear refuses to honour the truth and instead tries to support the lie. Here the Iraqi people welcome the invaders. Here there are weapons of mass destruction. Here there are the biological weapons.Considering the extraordinary opportunity to capture unique footage from a grunts perspective Severe Clear shows us nothing we have not already seen and tries to frame it into a predetermined narrative. We learn nothing of how it really feels to be a soldier in the field. We don't get to know any of the characters that make up the Marine detachment. We don't see the real impact of bombs on the Iraq people or the desecration of Iraqi historical sites. We don't see the indiscriminate brutality the Iraqis face at the hands of the dehumanised troops. We don't see the copious drug taking by US soldiers or the rampant privatisation and commercialisation of war. We don't learn that over one million Iraq people have been killed since the invasion.For a better perspective of the Iraq invasion in general, the documentaries Why We Fight (2005) and the superb No End in Sight (2007) are recommended. For a grunts perspective of the invasion, then the drama Generation Kill (2008) is recommended as it has more to say about the Iraq war and the soldiers experience than anything so far filmed on the subject.