Control Room
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.32 You Save: $13.66 (91%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Control Room
Movie Review: Control Room - Insights into the Arab Media
Summary: 5 Stars
`Control Room' was a very insightful view into the minds of the Arab media, and the construction of the Arab perspective. `Control Room' highlights the role of the media in the age of information warfare, and Al-Jazeera is a player in that war. The way the documentary was made was very political from the onset, with the montage in the intro paving the way for creating politically motivated spectacles. For instance, the shot of the birds flying in the intro montage was a politically motivated scene, meant to imply anticipation and anxiety over the coming US liberation / invasion. The documentary almost seemed to mimic the political quality if Al-Jazeera, in that shots are judged on their appearance rather than substance.
Yes, there may be a myth of objectivity, however it is the job of the journalist to attempt to be as objective as possible. Al-Jazeera does have motivations, just as Fox News does, but that does not mean that Al-Jazeera gets a pass on the question of objectivity. The head of Al-Jazeera starts of by saying a military commander should put the media at the top of his priorities; he says that propaganda is a very important weapon in the arsenal. So it is only natural to expect that Al-Jazeera is more of an agenda setter and a propagator, rather than a straight news organization.
What was evident from the film is that Al-Jazeera does not think of itself as a participant in a war, just an observer. This is not the reality. By broadcasting enemy propaganda, the parade of POW's, Al-Jazeera sets itself up for conflict with coalition forces. Airing pictures of POW's gives ammunition to enemy ambitions, and endangers troops. Al-Jazeera didn't seem to get it, that they are not just a news organization, but also an active participant in the conflict. This is the threat that journalists face when entering a war zone; the threat of being a participant in the war.
`Control Room' illustrates these points in specific scenes. One of the reports says: "We lost Baghdad." I was left asking, who is we? "We lost Baghdad," is the "we" some Baathist sympathy, some pan-Arab nationalism, or just plain old anti-Americanism. That reporter is obviously rooting for `our' defeat. Not to say that journalist cant be people with thoughts and feeling, because we certainly have biased reporting here at home, but rather that personal opinions really should be displayed or communicated when reporting events. Even the Al-Jazeera correspondents couldn't manage to muster up a hint of objectivity throughout the film.
In the age of terrorism the role of the media has come to play a significant role in the outcome of conflicts. In fact, modern terror tactics specifically play to the media. When a bomb goes off in a civilian area, the objective is not tactical but strategic. That is to say that terror bombings are often designed to attract media attention rather than say engage a specific target. The so-called "propaganda of the deed." It seems that Al-Jazeera was manipulated back in 2003, used by the enemy to broadcast tactical war propaganda.
The film also was informative to the editorial decisions that are made at the media outlet. There was one instance that stands out in particular. At one point during the film we see a young boy screaming into the camera. He is screaming about someone being a Baathist, and screaming something akin to death to America if memory serves me. What kind of editorial decision was this? Number one: a screaming emotional kid is not news (he might not realize the consequences of his speech in a wartime), number two: it is very dangerous for that child to be on television making accusations and threats (what if some insurgent recognized this kid), thirdly: its just plain exploitation (going for sensationalism and ignoring the consequences). I fault Al-Jazeera for putting sensationalistic news above the safety of the source.
Another particular scene stands out as a mimic of the Al-Jazeera style of reporting. When Baghdad is first being bombed the film give the impression that the control room was being shelled. The camera was shaky and the audience is given the impression of panic and being under attack. It was an interesting device that speaks to the creation of spectacles. The control room was obviously not being bombed; Al-Jazeera is in Dubai, not Baghdad. This is subliminal deception on the part of the filmmakers which all too appropriate for a film about Al-Jazeera.
Conclusively, `Control Room' was a interesting film that needed to made for western audiences. The film gives us a look of the world for a new perspective and makes theses `enemy propagandists' a human quality that is hard to ignore. We see Al-Jazeera as not terrorist sympathizers, but rather frustrated voices coming from a bleak world of strife. Personally, I like have the Arab perspective from Al-Jazzera, it compounds the notion that world is not so black and white and that journalist are not `outside of the event,' but rather active participants in the story.
Movie Review: "The American media were hijacked."
Summary: 5 Stars
The documentary "Control Room" is a behind-the-scenes look at al-Jazeera, the largest all-news Arabic television station. Al-Jazeera was formed in 1996, and its office is located in Qatar. Since the beginning of the Iraqi war, the number of al-Jazeera's viewers has doubled. In other words, if you are an Arab, and you are watching footage of the war, there's an excellent chance that you are watching al-Jazeera's coverage. The film's main focus is al-Jazeera's coverage of the Iraqi war, and the film begins in 3/03 with Bush's televised announcement that Saddam Hussein and his sons need to leave Iraq--or else.
Curiously enough, Qatar is also the base of operations for the U.S. Central-Command (Cen-Com), and right next door is the Coalition Media Centre. Qatar is located about 700 miles from Baghdad, and all of the major news stations have offices inside the Coalition Media Centre. Some of the film's footage shows reporters from various stations summoned for press releases that are delivered by a military officer. The film illustrates the frustrations felt by the reporters who gather in one room to get the low-down on the news that is taking place hundreds of miles away. For example--one of the announcements concerns a pack of cards--featuring America's 'most wanted' Iraqis. The reporters are eager to look at the pack and identify the villains, but there's a catch. There's only one pack of cards in Cen-Com, and although the general offered to let the journalists take a look at them when he flashed them at the news conference, bottom line--the general won't part with his pack of cards--even though a horde of journalists crowd around his office and demand a look.
Spokesperson, Marine Lt. Josh Rushing presents an earnest, human face to the al-Jazeera reporters and to the world. He confesses that he found the footage of the American military dead aired by al-Jazeera very distressing, but at the same time, he realizes that his reactions to the footage of the Iraqi dead failed to cause such an emotional reaction. From this observation, Lt. Rushing comprehends that Arabs observing footage of their dead are just as distressed as he is when he sees dead Americans.
As for al-Jazeera, "the mouthpiece of Osama Bin Laden" (according to the Bush administration), they are not content to show the war through a system of press releases. They air footage of bodies--some severely wounded children, flattened buildings, and Iraqis screaming their grief at the camera. These scenes are the reality of war. People die. But in America, an entirely different picture is painted. The American media's presentation is, as Deema Khatib, an al-Jazeera producer comments "like an American movie." Rumsfeld accuses al-Jazeera of faking photos of the wounded. According to Rumsfeld, when they know a bomb is about to hit "they grab some children and some women and pretend the bomb hit the women and children." Al-Jazeera responds to charges that they incite the Arab world with photos of the dead and wounded by saying:
"war has a human cost." Just what are the ethics of showing the footage of the casualties of war? Should the media sanitize the war and serve it up in a series of carefully orchestrated photo-op moments (like the majority of the American Press)? Is al-Jazeera inciting the Arab world by showing the footage of the dead and wounded, or is al-Jazeera morally obligated to show these gruesome images to the world?
This eye-opening documentary includes moment of shames when an al-Jazeera reporter is killed in what appears to be a deliberate targeting by an American bomber. Another shocking element of the documentary is the way in which the al-Jazeera reporters catch things that the Americans reporters don't. Scenes of the invasion of Baghdad, the toppling of Sadaam's statue, the Kurds destroying money, and children chanting hate messages to Bush are all subject to vitally different interpretations. In other words--what we see here in America is not what the Arab world sees, and furthermore we so often interpret things incorrectly simply because we do not understand. Similarly, just as Lt. Rushing insists that Palestine and Iraq are two different things, al-Jazeera reporter, Hassan Ibrahim tries to explain the two conflicts are tied in the Arab world. Can we ever understand the Arab point of view, or are we simply not interested in understanding it?
"Control Room" is a fascinating glimpse at a world that we rarely see. Al-Jazeera is full of dedicated journalists--some in traditional clothing, and some very Westernized (I noticed that none of those in traditional dress spoke to the cameras). If you are interested in the role of the media in this war, or the ethics of journalism, I recommend watching the excellent documentary "Control Room"--displacedhuman
Movie Review: The key here is to understand a different perspective
Summary: 5 Stars
During the second Gulf War the Arab news network Al Jazeera managed to be denounced by both American Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Iraqi Information Minister Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf. In some quarters this would be taken as evidence they must have been doing something right, but seeing Al Jazeera as being anything other than right or wrong has been difficult enough that the 2004 documentary "Control Room" is worth seeing. Before this you have probably heard about what the American government and television networks have had to say about Al Jazeera, so letting its producers and reporters talk for themselves is pretty interesting especially if all you really know about Al Jazeera is that they run tapes by Al Queda and showed film of hostages, wounded children, and corpses during the war with Irqai.
"Control Room" was made by Jehane Noujaim, an Arab-American documentarian who previously made "Startup.com." The director's presence in this film consists of title cards and editing instead of over narration or commentary (the film is in English and Arabic with Arabic subtitles). The focus is on how the Arab satellite news channel about other networks covered the early days of the war in Iraq and the style is certainly much more that of the spectator than the involved advocate (to wit, this ain't Michael Moore). The result is that there is ample evidence Al Jazeera is more of a news network where they speak Arabic than an instrument of propaganda.
If, for the sake of argument, the Watergate scandal represents the high point of journalism, then things have certainly slipped. When ABC's "Primetime Live" did an hour-long expose on FOX's "American Idol" and the claims of Corey Clark that he had an inappropriate relationship with Paula Abdul, one of the show's judges was this a quest for the truth or a chance to take down another network's highest rated show a peg or too in the Nielsen ratings? Those who have seen the documentary "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" will have an interesting choice as to where to start throwing stones first when it comes to issues of journalistic standard and integrity (and there is no end to the list of where to throw those stones). The simple reality might be that it is no longer possible to tell who is standing on your side of the looking glass, the politicians or the reporters.
That being said, what emerges here are a group of individuals, most of who are producers for Al Jazeera. Hassan Ibrahim is an articulate man who continually makes points about how what is being shown on television plays to the Arab audience. Deema Khatib is even more articulate Arab Woman who embodies the Arab perspective of the network. Yes, there is a scene where she expresses disbelief that "we" lost Baghdad, but if you get to the deleted scenes she talks about how she wants to see the Arabs get rid of the Sadaam Husseins of the region, but she wants to see it done without outsiders accomplishing it (there are dozens of deleted scenes, consisting mostly of interview clips with these individuals). Samir Kahder, a senior producer, is the one who responds to Rumsfeld's attacks by explaining that the network showed images of Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. bombs because they wanted to show the human cost of war. If there is one strength to this documentary it is that you will understand Al Jazeera's perspective, even if you disagree or even detest it. Yes, there are elements here that are critical of specific actions of the American military during the war, but we do not need Al Jazeera to tell us that was the case.
Ironically, the key figure to emerge from the documentary is Lt. Josh Rushing, a Marine office assigned at Central Command to talk to reporters. Rushing become important not because he is an American in a documentary largely about Arab television journalists, but because he has the most important epiphany. Outraged by film on Al Jazeera of the corpses of American soldiers, Rushing notes that similar footage of dead Iraqis did not keep him from going off to dinner. Rushing comes to the conclusion that Arabs watching these images on television would probably feel the same way about the latter as he did about the former. This does not change Rushing's views about the war, but it underscores what is the most important lesson of "Control Room," which is to simply understand a different point of view. Even if you reject it, at least understand it first. Fortunately, "Control Room" helps us do that.
Movie Review: "It makes me hate war." - Lt. Rushing
Summary: 5 Stars
Control Room displays Al Jazeera's Satellite Channel importance in the Middle East as forty million Arab viewers watch this new station, which also makes it one of the most important news stations in the Middle East. It has been pushing controversial topics to its viewers. In fact, many of these news shows have been so progressive that they critiqued some regimes, which have lead them to become banned in some Arab countries. Nonetheless, they continue to air both sides of the news, as many of their employees hope for a better future in the Middle East.
In March 2003, President George W. Bush declared war on Iraq on the basis that his administration suspected that they had weapons of mass destruction that could potentially be used against the United States. Before the war began the United State set up a military headquarters called Central Command in the Middle East, which is located outside Doha, Qatar. At this Central Command most news networks could get the United States' version of how things progressed in the war, which naturally provided an American biased view. Nonetheless, Al Jazeera was present and tried to get the information in the American light.
Simultaneously with the news from the Command Center, Al Jazeera had people located in Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra in order to get the Iraqi view on the war. Through the war they received shots of civilians being killed to which Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld disputed as propaganda and deceitful lies. When Al Jazeera aired shots of captured American POW's many Americans were heated with hatred towards Al Jazeera and the Muslim world, yet no other news station displayed the opposite side of the war. Despite what was right or wrong, Al Jazeera aired this, which fueled the rage on both sides. The press officer Lieutenant Josh Rushing offers the best two sided explanation to the violence in Iraq. He comments to how he reacted with revulsion to the killed American soldiers that were filmed by Al Jazeera and how nonchalant he felt after having seen Al Jazeera's film of the mayhem after one of the American bombings that accidentally harmed and killed civilians. To this Lt. Rushing stated, "It makes me hate war."
This documentary displays the good and bad while telling the truth of both sides, and how it affects people on both sides. It is truly a tragic story, yet, it offers a profound insight into how it could be to be on the other side. One should also consider the fact that United States has had freedom of speech for over 200 years while in the Middle East this is still a new concept that they are trying to grasp. To expect change overnight is to close the eyes to the 200 years of history in the United States that has been full of injustice and trespasses in regards to these freedoms through prejudice and hatred. The Middle East might have to go through their own 200 years before true freedom for all is to be expected.
Movie Review: a look into a world we never get to see
Summary: 5 Stars
My perception of the Al Jazeera television network was that this is the network that broadcasts the Osama Bin Ladin messages and that it is the most popular news network in the Arab world. This is, of course, filtered through a very American lens. It is difficult to say what the reality of the network is without actually being a part of that world or even that network, but "Control Room" attempts to bring us that perspective. We are invited into the world of Al Jazeera where the network producer tells the viewer that it is his job, his passion to have an entirely fair news broadcast that presents different viewpoints and gives voice to those who are willing to speak. The network has criticized Arab governments and has been officially banned in several nations. It sounds so democratic.
At the same time the people at the network are talking up Al Jazeera there are clips from speeches and press conferences held by Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush saying that what Al Jazeera is doing is wrong and it isn't balanced and that the network is trying to undermine the war in Iraq (this film was shot in the early days of the US invasion) by showing the violence and aftershocks of the violence and that the network is distorting the truth. Al Jazeera counters with saying that they are only showing reality and that United States can't have it both ways, to have a war and also to be shown as entirely peaceful. This is as much of a clash of ideology as it is about the truth in Broadcasting.
The Army's press liaison asks an Al Jazeera newsman if the people at the network can be entirely unbiased and report only the truth with no shadings of interpretation. The newsman counters by asking if the Americans can do this. Of course, we know the answer is no. Fox News and CNN and all of the other channels shade the reports, especially in the early stages, with Pro-American slants. It is expected, though not truly "fair". I think that the issue the United States officials and military has with Al Jazeera is that it doesn't blindly support the United States and that it does offer differing perspectives and that it does give voice to those the US finds offensive. Perhaps even the network is Anti-American, though the film does not truly give that opinion. The perspective the film is showing us is that Al Jazeera is a truly free network and possibly the only truly fair network. But even that is spin.
"Control Room" is an excellent documentary and gives a rare look into a world Americans never see and a network that Americans only hear rumors about. Here is another side of the story, one that is worth watching, and one that is well worth learning about.