Forget politics, 'The War Tapes' is about the soldiers

By BETSY PICKLE
There's only one side anyone can take while watching "The War Tapes" _ the soldiers'.

Forget politics. Forget grandstanding. Forget motivations. "The War Tapes" makes Operation Iraqi Freedom real as no other documentary or news coverage has. It captures the impact war has on soldiers and their loved ones, both as it's happening to them and after they're out of its path.

You know the old war movies in which stoic men deadpan their way through hair-raising adventures? That's part of what makes "The War Tapes" crackle, only this time the action and quips aren't scripted.

These are actual members of the New Hampshire National Guard who agreed to take digital video cameras with them to Iraq and send their tapes (after they were approved by their superior officers) to director Deborah Scranton. Veteran broadcast journalist Scranton used those tapes along with footage she shot of the Guardsmen and their families at home to describe a journey that now has been taken by thousands of Americans over the past three-plus years.

Sergeants Zack Bazzi and Steve Pink and Specialist Mike Moriarty are featured in footage shot at Camp Anaconda, on the road escorting KBR/Halliburton convoys and in Fallujah engaging the enemy. Some of their experiences are morbidly, wryly or wickedly funny; others are terrifying, confusing, shocking or mundane.

Bazzi, who emigrated from Lebanon as a boy, uses his Arabic to communicate with the locals and marvels at the lack of training in Iraqi culture and language the Americans received. Pink reads vivid excerpts from his journal to illustrate his experiences further. Moriarty witnesses a tragedy that was the last thing he expected.

The Guardsmen make clear-eyed comments about the war, what they're doing and how they're doing it. The why _ in regard to U.S. involvement in Iraq _ is not such a big deal to them. Pink and Moriarty support it; Bazzi, who served in the U.S. Army in Kosovo and Bosnia, has a professional soldier's attitude about it.

Their tapes from Iraq are gripping snapshots of the strangeness and terror of war. The material shot after the men return home _ Moriarty to his wife and young children, Pink to his girlfriend and Bazzi to his mother _ is even more affecting.

Scranton's approach is as objective as it possibly could be, and viewers are likely to hold on to their own opinions about America's presence in Iraq. But "The War Tapes" expresses something that's rarely voiced so clearly: No one who goes to war comes home the same person.

Not rated; contains strong language, gruesome images and violence.

Five stars (out of five)