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I'm not sure what it was, really - documentary, travelog, expose, all in one. A journalist (Sean Langwood/Lockwood?) basically hung around in Iraq for about a year, interviewing Iraqi civilians, US soldiers and members of the resistance. Some of what the US soldiers were saying was interesting, in that a vast majority of them believed they were being misled. At a US army hospital, the staff were saying how much of an eye-opener it was seeing the amount of casualites compared to what gets reported back home. And whilst he was there, helicopters arrived every 10-15 minutes with fresh casulties. One of these was a soldier who had a bullet removed from his head, and was interviewed briefly. He survived, but a few others died in the ambush. The amazing thing was that the following day, the journalist managed to arrange a meeting with the resistance, and actually met and interviewed the person who had taken the shots at the vehicle.
Forget everything you know about the Iraqi people. They don't live in run-down stone huts, marry their relatives, or eat their pets. They're very intelligent people, and the interviews they gave in the street showed more of a political awareness than a lot of people you'd meet over here and have all the benefits of our media system. The only thing that creeped me out was the odd person that would come along shouting "Death to Jews and non-believers", but on the whole they gave reasonable and respectable opinions on why they want the Americans out. It turned a bit nasty though when he got a bit too far into one of the hotspots, and when surrounded by a large group of people who were kicking him, one approached with a hand grenade and his finger in the pin. They promptly left, but under armed-guard from some shopkeepers he'd just interviewed.
Easily the most shocking part of the docu-travel-expose (more than the filmed suicide bombing/snuff movie, which I'll get to in a minute) was when he visited Abu Gharib prison - the location of the random mass-abuse of innocent Iraqi prisoners. There were literally hundreds of people queuing outside, complaining at the conditions their relatives were kept in, and they knew all about the abuse. The stories being told were as graphic, some worse, than what we've only heard about recently, and this was made before it erupted in the media. Everyone knew the prisoners were getting beaten, raped and tortured, but were powerless to stop it. A lot of the prisoners were University students, picked up in the middle of the night, with no reasons given. Imagine all the students in Cambridge being locked up because their perceived intelligence could be a threat to an occupying force, and that's the general consensus out there.
And now the suicide bombing. A few days before it happened, the journalist interviewed a group of US soldiers guarding a bridge. Across the river, it was well known that an extremist group of militants were hiding, and it was the perfect place to take potshots at the soldiers. They seemed pretty sensitive to the Iraqi cause, and mentioned that they were wary about opening fire because they could hit civilians, losing hearts and minds in the process. Then a few days later a suicide bomber drove a massive truck packed with explosives right into the base under their side of the bridge and exploded it, killing some of the soldiers that had been interviewed. All the while this was filmed from the other side of the river by the extremists, and the footage showed them hugging the driver, getting in the truck and then speeding off towards his target. They couldn't have stopped it - it was a big truck and it was going really fast. The explosion was huge, like something out of a film, with smoke and debris flying up from each side of the bridge.
It's a shame that this was on so late, and on a rarely-viewed digital channel, as there is a lot of content that will make people sit up and take an interest in the state of world affairs. Not saying that the BBC should replace Eastenders with hard-hitting shots of people exploding, but they could at least have put it on a bit earlier.
Forget everything you know about the Iraqi people. They don't live in run-down stone huts, marry their relatives, or eat their pets. They're very intelligent people, and the interviews they gave in the street showed more of a political awareness than a lot of people you'd meet over here and have all the benefits of our media system. The only thing that creeped me out was the odd person that would come along shouting "Death to Jews and non-believers", but on the whole they gave reasonable and respectable opinions on why they want the Americans out. It turned a bit nasty though when he got a bit too far into one of the hotspots, and when surrounded by a large group of people who were kicking him, one approached with a hand grenade and his finger in the pin. They promptly left, but under armed-guard from some shopkeepers he'd just interviewed.
Easily the most shocking part of the docu-travel-expose (more than the filmed suicide bombing/snuff movie, which I'll get to in a minute) was when he visited Abu Gharib prison - the location of the random mass-abuse of innocent Iraqi prisoners. There were literally hundreds of people queuing outside, complaining at the conditions their relatives were kept in, and they knew all about the abuse. The stories being told were as graphic, some worse, than what we've only heard about recently, and this was made before it erupted in the media. Everyone knew the prisoners were getting beaten, raped and tortured, but were powerless to stop it. A lot of the prisoners were University students, picked up in the middle of the night, with no reasons given. Imagine all the students in Cambridge being locked up because their perceived intelligence could be a threat to an occupying force, and that's the general consensus out there.
And now the suicide bombing. A few days before it happened, the journalist interviewed a group of US soldiers guarding a bridge. Across the river, it was well known that an extremist group of militants were hiding, and it was the perfect place to take potshots at the soldiers. They seemed pretty sensitive to the Iraqi cause, and mentioned that they were wary about opening fire because they could hit civilians, losing hearts and minds in the process. Then a few days later a suicide bomber drove a massive truck packed with explosives right into the base under their side of the bridge and exploded it, killing some of the soldiers that had been interviewed. All the while this was filmed from the other side of the river by the extremists, and the footage showed them hugging the driver, getting in the truck and then speeding off towards his target. They couldn't have stopped it - it was a big truck and it was going really fast. The explosion was huge, like something out of a film, with smoke and debris flying up from each side of the bridge.
It's a shame that this was on so late, and on a rarely-viewed digital channel, as there is a lot of content that will make people sit up and take an interest in the state of world affairs. Not saying that the BBC should replace Eastenders with hard-hitting shots of people exploding, but they could at least have put it on a bit earlier.
Interesting...
We'll have to see if it's repeated.
We'll have to see if it's repeated.
It was Langan I believe, and I think it was BBC4. Mind, I didn't watch it cos I was engrossed in Man Bites Dog. Which is, by the way, a DEEPLY nasty film.
I'm not sure what it was, really - documentary, travelog, expose, all in one. A journalist (Sean Langwood/Lockwood?) basically hung around in Iraq for about a year, interviewing Iraqi civilians, US soldiers and members of the resistance. Some of what the US soldiers were saying was interesting, in that a vast majority of them believed they were being misled. At a US army hospital, the staff were saying how much of an eye-opener it was seeing the amount of casualites compared to what gets reported back home. And whilst he was there, helicopters arrived every 10-15 minutes with fresh casulties. One of these was a soldier who had a bullet removed from his head, and was interviewed briefly. He survived, but a few others died in the ambush. The amazing thing was that the following day, the journalist managed to arrange a meeting with the resistance, and actually met and interviewed the person who had taken the shots at the vehicle.
Forget everything you know about the Iraqi people. They don't live in run-down stone huts, marry their relatives, or eat their pets. They're very intelligent people, and the interviews they gave in the street showed more of a political awareness than a lot of people you'd meet over here and have all the benefits of our media system. The only thing that creeped me out was the odd person that would come along shouting "Death to Jews and non-believers", but on the whole they gave reasonable and respectable opinions on why they want the Americans out. It turned a bit nasty though when he got a bit too far into one of the hotspots, and when surrounded by a large group of people who were kicking him, one approached with a hand grenade and his finger in the pin. They promptly left, but under armed-guard from some shopkeepers he'd just interviewed.
Easily the most shocking part of the docu-travel-expose (more than the filmed suicide bombing/snuff movie, which I'll get to in a minute) was when he visited Abu Gharib prison - the location of the random mass-abuse of innocent Iraqi prisoners. There were literally hundreds of people queuing outside, complaining at the conditions their relatives were kept in, and they knew all about the abuse. The stories being told were as graphic, some worse, than what we've only heard about recently, and this was made before it erupted in the media. Everyone knew the prisoners were getting beaten, raped and tortured, but were powerless to stop it. A lot of the prisoners were University students, picked up in the middle of the night, with no reasons given. Imagine all the students in Cambridge being locked up because their perceived intelligence could be a threat to an occupying force, and that's the general consensus out there.
And now the suicide bombing. A few days before it happened, the journalist interviewed a group of US soldiers guarding a bridge. Across the river, it was well known that an extremist group of militants were hiding, and it was the perfect place to take potshots at the soldiers. They seemed pretty sensitive to the Iraqi cause, and mentioned that they were wary about opening fire because they could hit civilians, losing hearts and minds in the process. Then a few days later a suicide bomber drove a massive truck packed with explosives right into the base under their side of the bridge and exploded it, killing some of the soldiers that had been interviewed. All the while this was filmed from the other side of the river by the extremists, and the footage showed them hugging the driver, getting in the truck and then speeding off towards his target. They couldn't have stopped it - it was a big truck and it was going really fast. The explosion was huge, like something out of a film, with smoke and debris flying up from each side of the bridge.
It's a shame that this was on so late, and on a rarely-viewed digital channel, as there is a lot of content that will make people sit up and take an interest in the state of world affairs. Not saying that the BBC should replace Eastenders with hard-hitting shots of people exploding, but they could at least have put it on a bit earlier.
Forget everything you know about the Iraqi people. They don't live in run-down stone huts, marry their relatives, or eat their pets. They're very intelligent people, and the interviews they gave in the street showed more of a political awareness than a lot of people you'd meet over here and have all the benefits of our media system. The only thing that creeped me out was the odd person that would come along shouting "Death to Jews and non-believers", but on the whole they gave reasonable and respectable opinions on why they want the Americans out. It turned a bit nasty though when he got a bit too far into one of the hotspots, and when surrounded by a large group of people who were kicking him, one approached with a hand grenade and his finger in the pin. They promptly left, but under armed-guard from some shopkeepers he'd just interviewed.
Easily the most shocking part of the docu-travel-expose (more than the filmed suicide bombing/snuff movie, which I'll get to in a minute) was when he visited Abu Gharib prison - the location of the random mass-abuse of innocent Iraqi prisoners. There were literally hundreds of people queuing outside, complaining at the conditions their relatives were kept in, and they knew all about the abuse. The stories being told were as graphic, some worse, than what we've only heard about recently, and this was made before it erupted in the media. Everyone knew the prisoners were getting beaten, raped and tortured, but were powerless to stop it. A lot of the prisoners were University students, picked up in the middle of the night, with no reasons given. Imagine all the students in Cambridge being locked up because their perceived intelligence could be a threat to an occupying force, and that's the general consensus out there.
And now the suicide bombing. A few days before it happened, the journalist interviewed a group of US soldiers guarding a bridge. Across the river, it was well known that an extremist group of militants were hiding, and it was the perfect place to take potshots at the soldiers. They seemed pretty sensitive to the Iraqi cause, and mentioned that they were wary about opening fire because they could hit civilians, losing hearts and minds in the process. Then a few days later a suicide bomber drove a massive truck packed with explosives right into the base under their side of the bridge and exploded it, killing some of the soldiers that had been interviewed. All the while this was filmed from the other side of the river by the extremists, and the footage showed them hugging the driver, getting in the truck and then speeding off towards his target. They couldn't have stopped it - it was a big truck and it was going really fast. The explosion was huge, like something out of a film, with smoke and debris flying up from each side of the bridge.
It's a shame that this was on so late, and on a rarely-viewed digital channel, as there is a lot of content that will make people sit up and take an interest in the state of world affairs. Not saying that the BBC should replace Eastenders with hard-hitting shots of people exploding, but they could at least have put it on a bit earlier.