Really enjoyed this piece, Zeeshan, especially your 'Real Arab test' suggestion. Feels like an overdue framework that’s been missing from the war film canon so far.
But I couldn't help noticing a tension in your argument. You open by critiquing the fact that a film like this gets made at all, which is fair. But then most of the piece shifts to criticising the film’s contents, as if it could (or should) have included more Iraqi subjectivity. If the whole point was to recreate Ray Mendoza’s memories with total fidelity, wouldn’t adding that break the film’s own logic?
It feels like the deeper issue here is that Mendoza’s story gets the spotlight while Iraqi stories rarely do. Which I agree with. But if that’s the case, isn’t the problem the system around the film, not the film itself? Would be curious to hear your thoughts.
Really enjoyed this piece, Zeeshan, especially your 'Real Arab test' suggestion. Feels like an overdue framework that’s been missing from the war film canon so far.
But I couldn't help noticing a tension in your argument. You open by critiquing the fact that a film like this gets made at all, which is fair. But then most of the piece shifts to criticising the film’s contents, as if it could (or should) have included more Iraqi subjectivity. If the whole point was to recreate Ray Mendoza’s memories with total fidelity, wouldn’t adding that break the film’s own logic?
It feels like the deeper issue here is that Mendoza’s story gets the spotlight while Iraqi stories rarely do. Which I agree with. But if that’s the case, isn’t the problem the system around the film, not the film itself? Would be curious to hear your thoughts.
Good article on Hollywood's terrible approach to America's imperial conquest and plunder, in regard to Iraq and otherwise.
I noted this nearly two decades ago:
https://apracticalpolicy.org/2008/03/21/iraq-war-novels-and-iraq-conquest-novels-where-they-are-and-are-not/
Compiled this:
https://apracticalpolicy.org/2010/04/06/iraq-war-fiction-3/
And wrote this, maybe the first and rare explicit anti Iraq war novel:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/homefront-tony-christini/1100071997