It's a shame that this fantastic documentary slipped past most radars in the wake of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Control Room is another portrait of the Iraq war through media coverage, shown primarily through the eyes of Al-Jazeera. By focusing on several personalities in the media center of the war - the director of Al Jazeera, an American military media liason, and journalists from various networks - director Noujaim presents several viewpoints concurrently.
Such a highly charged emotional issue is dealt with carefully, and while an inevitable bias emerges, the picture is also sympathetic to the American side . I walked away from this film with a lot of respect for Al-Jazeera, seeing it as far more than "Osama Bin Laden's mouthpiece" as the Bush administration proclaims. It's a very positive thing for the Arab world, and the network has been as openly critical of Arab governments as it has been with the United States.
The war crimes of the Bush administration are not glossed over - the attacks on journalistic centers are exposed for the bullshit that they are - but Al-Jazeera is shown to be far more than a group of fundamentalist propagandists. What perhaps is most surprising - and oddly touching - is the director saying how he plans to send his children to school in America. The American military media officer also develops in a far more complex way than he appears at first.
Granted, Al Jazeera is comprised primarily of secular, liberal Arabs, but their commitment to journalism is no different than that of what Western media networks supposedly follow. When trying to determine what exactly comprises "propaganda" just about everything comes into question - Control Room included, for it could be seen as a commercial for Al Jazeera. But in trying to make some sense of this fucked up world, I suppose the best one can do is view as much information as possible and come to their own conclusions. In that case, this is a far more crucial document on the Iraq War than Moore's film, and probably more of an eye-opener as well.
| Control Room at Amazon |
