:
Garrett Scott,
Ian Olds
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: RumuR Releasing
: Documentary, Military
: English
: Spanish
see additional details...
|
|
Occupation: Dreamland is an unflinchingly candid and darkly humorous portrait of a squad of American soldiers deployed in the doomed Iraqi city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. The film chronicles the daily life of young soldiers on patrol in an environment of low-intensity conflict creeping steadily towards catastrophe. Occupation: Dreamland documents the city's waning stability before the final Marine assaults of 2004. Filmmakers Garrett Scott and Ian Olds were given unrestricted access to operations of the Army's 82nd Airborne. The result is a revealing, sometimes surprising look at Army life and the complexity of American war in the 21st century.
|
| The truth beyond "Gunner Palace"
by SBarnett
August 8, 2006 - 8:47 AM PDT
|
|
|
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
|
| "Occupation: Dreamland" goes beyond the documentary "Gunner Palace" to show not just the outer life of US soldiers in Iraq but their inner lives as well. And it also gives us an Iraqi perspective by letting individual Iraqis speak directly to us for themselves. Very highly recommended for anyone who wants to see a different take on the war from what we get on TV news. |
| Another Iraq War Rorschach Test
by talltale
July 16, 2006 - 8:31 AM PDT
|
|
|
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
|
Whew. Whatever OCCUPATION: DREAMLAND might be as a documentary, reading the member reviews posted on a competing rental website (starts wirh an "n," ends with an "x") proved a much more jarring experience that the film itself--in which we see and hear little more than most viewers with a few grains of intelligence would already expect. Posted there is the gamut of viewpoints on the Iraq war, and you know what? This movie easily encompasses them all, just as it does the viewpoints of the soldiers in the documentary, whom we hear rather tentatively discussing the pros and cons of the war and why they're over there.
One viewer from Valenica, California, is just SURE the filmmakers had to search everywhere to find a soldier who would bash Republicans and the war. (What? I guess he didn't hear the other soldier say that HE was certain that his President would only send him to fight for a good cause.) Another reviewer notes that this same 82nd Airborne Unit that provides the film's protagonists has in fact witnessed and/or been involved in abuse and torture, but the film gives us no hint of this. Another fellow is certain that there is no hidden agenda to the film, while yet another member says that he was actually there, in that unit, and that we viewers should put ourselves in the unit's shoes for 90 minutes (unfortunately, the film is only 80 minutes long). Interestingly, a couple of the soldiers in the film actually mention trying to put themselves in the shoes of the Iraqis--something you almost never hear said by the rah-rah-war set here in America. And America did attack Iraq, correct? Or has black now become so white that maybe Iraq actually attacked and occupied America first?
As to the documentary itself, with the camera constantly trained on them, the soldiers seem at times (as you'd expect) to be holding back--both in their talk and in their maneuvers. Yet what we see is better than nothing, which is what our government provides by denying us the chance to view anything except pre-digested, shock-and-awe twaddle. Yes, Americans want to support our troops, and yes, anyone--filmmaker included--who goes to Iraq is brave on some level. As were, on some level, the Germans soldiers in WWII who invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia. Please: Real perspective, together with a sense of history, is desperately needed here before we all fall--protesting our goodness, of course--into the abyss. |
|
|
GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.10)
20 Votes
add to list 
|
|
|
Your cart
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.