Shooting war

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The left-leaning documentarians have had their say on the Iraq war. Filmmaker Deborah Scranton is letting the men in combat have a crack at it.

"The War Tapes" arms three soldiers with cameras so they can file their own reports from the front lines. The results -- spanning from the soldiers' conflicted patriotism to their near universal cynicism for the task at hand -- defy conventional expectations.

Yes, the camerawork is often shaky and incoherent, but Miss Scranton spit polishes the footage without sacrificing the meat of the matter.

It's the umpteenth variation on "war is hell," but it's a message delivered without the usual filters.

That's not to say there aren't agendas at play, but the inherent decency of the U.S. soldier remains the film's unflagging core.

The story starts at Fort Dix, N.J., where three National Guardsmen gear up for the long plane trip to Iraq. The cameramen behind these "Tapes" are Sgt. Steve Pink, Sgt. Zack Bazzi and Spc. Mike Moriarty. Sgt. Pink fancies himself a writer, and his observations reveal a refreshing curiosity both about his work and the impact it will have.

Sgt. Bazzi, a Lebanese immigrant, is the most disdainful of the mission, while Spc. Moriarty stands out as the most conventionally "rah-rah" of the lot.

Each is deposited in Fallujah circa 2004, where the citizens remarkably go about their lives while the mortar shells ring out around them. The soldiers do more or less the same, while running missions to protect supply chains and even, at one point, a tanker full of human waste.

Nothing, it seems, is easy. Cultural ignorance prevents the soldiers from bonding with innocent civilians. Weak armor plating puts civilian contractors in harm's way. And the horrors of the IEDs (improvised explosive devices) are laid bare during several jittery combat scenes.

The stories captured from the home front flesh out the characters yet prove all too predictable. What wife or mother wants to see her loved one overseas fighting a bloody war? The movie fails to exploit the potential in one woman left behind, the mother of Sgt. Bazzi. Her cultural ties would give her reflections the most weight, but her heart is so heavy with fear for her son's safety it's all consuming.