Shock and Awe, written by Joey Hartstone, directed by Rob Reiner

Shock and Awe, written by Joey Hartstone, directed by Rob Reiner

3* out of 4

This motion picture is an invitation to mediate on past mistakes, made before and during the war in Iraq, by the people who have decided to start it and others that have supported the campaign, included the undersigned, which was and somehow still is biased on the subject and therefore prejudiced in judging this movie.

Having lived under one dictator – Ceausescu – one could feel that the idea of eliminating one like Saddam Hussein cannot be condemned, on the contrary, it seemed an excellent idea- indeed, confessing perhaps to ultimate stupidity, it still feels like based on good intentions…

“Hell is paved with good intentions”

This feature argues that the Bush Administration has known from the very beginning that Iraq had nothing to do with September 11, the destruction of the Twin Tower4s and the ensuing massacre of innocent people, a terrorist act that was coordinated and executed by Al Qaeda and its leader, Ben Laden.

Shock and Awe is a very good film, going as far as to explain in short the history of Islam, with the split between the main factions, Sunni – in majority, but not in Iraq or Iran – and Shia, the discrepancies in the theory of the WMD, weapons of mass destruction that have never been found, the mistake made by the main stream media, which took the line of the administration, ending up with apologies from the New York Times.

Rob Reiner, who directs the film and stars as John Walcott – a brilliant man, one of the few who saw the truth, distinguished between propaganda and reality – has been recently on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert , where he commented on a clip from the film and argued about the

Paramount Importance of the Media, especially in the age of Trump, an individual determined to present his version of reality, which has very little, if anything to do with Facts and everything to do with his ego, needy self, always interested in his image and desperate to be admired, loved and worshipped.

Therefore the core of the motion picture, the values exposed, the essential message, the sublime characters are all worthy of admiration, the result is a very good film, even if there are aspects that one could disagree with.

For instance, this biased viewer still feels that we cannot know what life would have been with Saddam still in power in Iraq, it could have been the hell we see in Syria, where another lunatic is and has been massacring his people over the past years.

In the words of one of the most loathed characters in the film – sometimes it is hard to see why – Donald Rumsfeld: “there are known unknowns and there are also unknown unknowns”- which would mean in this context that Saddam Hussein could have used – again – chemical weapons and other hugely destructive means against Iraqis and others in the region.

One area in which Shock and Awe seems to be less astounding – if not failing altogether – is the case against Saddam Hussein and his regime, seemingly bent on presenting the flaws of the official plan, but perhaps ending with the same mistake the Bush administration committed: ignoring the evidence against the version which they proposed.

Saddam Hussein has used chemical weapons to kill his own people, he has started an eight year old war with Iran – which evidently resulted in catastrophic casualties – and then invaded Kuwait, threatening other or all neighbors.

Again, we lived under a tyrant here – we could admit that the scenarios are different in that we do not have sectarian divisions or a large Kurdish population – and what we have been thinking when suffering from the rule of Ceausescu was

“Why the Americans are not interested in what happens here?” and…

“Why have they let the Russians in, with their damned, detestable, abominable communism in, after WWII?”

So another look at what happened could be that Saddam Hussein needed to be eliminated, by force if necessary, the military intervention was to some extent successful, for he has been deposed, only the consequent chaos, insurgence and battles have not been anticipated and thought through.

If part of the premise was wrong – no Weapons of Mass Destruction, even if one could still argue to some extent on that too, for as aforementioned, the dictator has used chemical weapons on his own people – then the plan to eliminate Saddam Hussein and any other similar dictator has more than a few merits.

Indeed, a world with Saddam Hussein allied eventually with Bashar Al Assad and other likeminded villains could be much worse than it is now, in spite of the mistakes and the many soldiers that have died in Iraq.

The point that politicians who sent other people’s children to war is well made, but it still feels at time like the suggestion is that Iraq and other “hell holes” should be allowed to disintegrate, with American or other intervention.

Having said that, Shock and Awe makes a wonderful case for the mass media, dedicated journalists, honest, perseverant, brave, gritty and willing to follow their calling in spite of the rejection of almost all the others.

The fabulous heroes, Super Men of this film are:

Jonathan Landay played by the mesmerizing Woody Harrelson, Warren Strobel aka James Marsden, John Walcott and Joe Galloway.